


10 Things I Hate About You

by TakeAWalkOnTheWildside



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Fusion, F/M, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Content, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2018-12-05 04:59:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11570823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakeAWalkOnTheWildside/pseuds/TakeAWalkOnTheWildside
Summary: Reggie's mouth twisted into triumphant smile "You will be compensated monetarily 100$ a day plus whatever gas and dates costs, and if you keep it up till Prom you'll find yourself with a brand new motorcycle." Three and a half Months. Winter Formal was the last week of January and Prom was the second week of May.He turned doubtful, "It won't be easy, and we have a lot of history, bad history."Reggie nodded but spoke with complete confidence "Yes, but you’re a Serpent, and as a snake deception and lies are your specialty. You're the only one that can do this convincingly and bad history is better than no history at all."AU Riverdale/10 Things I Hate About You





	1. Deal Me In Baby

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys!  
> This is my first time to be writing fanfiction for anything and I do hope you enjoy what I have written. Please be gentle with me please :)  
> I will try and figure out an update schedule and let you know, that is if you all decide you like what I have written. Hope to get some feedback soon.  
> Thanks, hugs  
> TAWOTW

_**“I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist.” ― William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew** _

 

 

Light streamed into Pop's Diner as an unusual couple sat at a booth in the far corner of the restaurant. The Nighthawks were in full swing, minding their own business drinking black coffee at the diner counter and nibbling on baskets of crispy French fries in booths.

In the darkest booth sat Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones, in utter silence.

These were not two men that you would ever see together normally.

It was like seeing a Cobra and a Mongoose cuddling. Both equally dangerous in their own way.

If they had both been adults the patrons of the store might have thought a shady business deal was underway.

But they were merely teenagers and this was the sweet town of Riverdale after all.

Reggie’s hushed voice seemed to ring out on the linoleum floors and vinyl seats of the diner despite how carefully he tried to whisper.

As he muttered his thanks to his guest for showing up the bell on the front door chimed once more indicating that they were the only ones left besides Pop himself.

Jughead leaned back in the booth, propping his heavy black combat boots on the table, nearly into Reggie's own French fries.

He smirked as he reached down and grabbed the basket and began popping them into his mouth. It was not until he finished the whole basket that he spoke, leaning his leather clad arms onto the Formica table. His slick black hair nearly covered his eyes as he looked up at Reggie's narrowed ones.

"It's been awhile Mantle, finally decide to take a break from flexing in the mirror?" His lips curled at the corners "I'll bet it gets tiring after awhile, plus you’re looking a little skinny maybe the myth of Narcissus had a bit of truth to it after all."

He sees Reggie's muscles tense and a small vein protrude from his temple as he takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “Whatever Carrie White let me just get to the point of this little meeting and we can both be on our way," he clenches his fists again, "Besides I'm sure you have important laws to break with your little snake club." He grinned with only a little victory in his eyes before becoming serious and placing his hands on the table in front of him.

His voice drops an octave as his demeanor becomes sharp and alert. "I want to take Polly Cooper to Winter Formal" Reggie admitted "but her mom is still pissed about the whole Jason Blossom thing that she won't let Polly go without Betty."

Jughead's face twisted from a puzzled expression to one of genuine confusion, "And you are telling me this for what reason?"

"Because I know your close with Andrews, and I know he has been friends with Cooper since they were in diapers" he spits crossing his arms over his chest and fidgeting with the pocket of his polo shirt. His tone told Jughead more than he probably realized. It was obvious from his frustration that Jughead was not the first person he had asked, and that he most certainly would not have been on the list at all if he wasn't so desperate. And judging by the amount of fidgeting occurring, he was at least a little worried that Jughead would flat out reject his request. Either that or Jughead himself made him a little nervous. He did have a dark look in his eye, and a little curl in his lips that could be called cruelty by most. Yes, Jughead Jones was not the biggest man in the room by any means, but he was dangerous in other ways.

His voice went flat. "Why didn't you just ask him then?"

Reggie rolled his eyes as his tone grew more agitated "Because Billy Loomis, everyone knows that Andrews has a hard on for Veronica Lodge, even Betty, and you have to know at least a little bit about her since you grew up with them before you moved to the Southside." He continued, "You obviously have an advantage that the other guys don't, and with her you need an edge to get anywhere."

The the corner of his mouth lifted, "Besides there aren't very many other people besides me lining up to take out one of Alice Cooper's daughters, you'd have to either be suicidal or not very attached to your genitals." He snorted.

Jughead smirked "Although I assure you I am neither of those things, you have sparked my interest Mantle, but what is in it for me?"

He was not embarrassed to ask, despite the large gap in their family’s respective incomes. Even if he could even convince her to go with him somehow he would still need a way to pay for wooing her.

Wooing Betty Cooper. He snickered to himself, those were words he never thought would apply to him. She had been a thorn in his side ever since they were in diapers, and now he would be expected to play with her feelings. Assuming she had any at all. That girl was as rigid as a Puritan Woman and more concerned about her grades than she was about her own health. To his knowledge she had never even been on a date, much less wooed. Everyone knew she had it bad for Archie, but that certainly hadn't gone anywhere.

Had she ever even been kissed? Ravaged? Seduced? Jughead doubted it.

Reggie's mouth twisted into triumphant smile "You will be compensated monetarily 100$ a day plus whatever gas and dates costs, and if you keep it up till Prom you'll find yourself with a brand new motorcycle." Three and a half Months. Winter Formal was the last week of January and Prom was the second week of May.

He turned doubtful, "It won't be easy, and we have a lot of history, bad history."

Reggie nodded but spoke with complete confidence "Yes, but you’re a Serpent, and as a snake deception and lies are your specialty. You're the only one that can do this convincingly and bad history is better than no history at all."

He leaned a few inches closer, "Besides if you play her well enough you may end up with more than a kiss on the dance floor at Prom." His expression was wicked.

Jughead eyes flicked to Reggie's narrowed and determined ones and he bit the inside of his cheek before reaching out his hand across the table.

"Deal"

Rain poured outside the diner as the two young men exited each going their own separate way. The city street lights the only illumination other than the neon lights of the diner itself.


	2. I Hate the Way You Talk To Me, and the Way You Cut Your Hair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the feedback guys, here is another chapter :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale or 10 Things I Hate About You

 

"She moves me not, or not removes at least affection's edge in me."

-William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew

 

Fluorescent lights gleamed off of the freshly waxed floor of the hallway, they were so polished the Betty could make out the image of her blonde ponytail in the linoleum.

The River Vixens had been released from practice over two hours ago, and she had been pacing in the foyer of the High School, narrowly avoiding the bright blue Bulldog seal that lay in the floor with each pass.

She was going to kill him.

Football practice had been long over before Cheryl had even given the Vixens their first water break.

Betty had caught Archie just as he headed to the locker room and asked for a ride home. Not a difficult request considering they were next door neighbors.

She knew he and Jughead would go directly to Pop's for a quick bite like they always did, but he assured her that it would be not problem for him to drive back and pick her up when she was done.

She glanced at her phone again.

8:15

Her eyes threatened to roll and her fingers were tempted to press her mother's button on speed dial.

But, just as her thumb began to drift a shrill chime echoed off the blue lockers and down the halls. She bobbled the phone in her hands before unlocking it and putting it to her ear.

"Betty!" Archie started in, "I'm _so_ sorry, we got caught up at Pop's Veronica she-"

"Arch," Betty interrupted "Just please tell me you are outside," she begged, hating the desperate sound of her voice.

His sounded guilty when he spoke again, "Well...not exactly, I'm in the parking lot a Pop's you see Veronica came and she-"

"Archie..." Betty's voice grew slightly colder. She was angry. No, she was furious. It wasn't like him to put anyone else before her, even a potential romantic fling. Until this year he had always put their friendship before any potential conquests.

Over the summer he had gradually started to change. Betty didn't totally blame him, it was part of growing up, but after he ditched her at the movies a few times and stopped coming over for their usual homework sessions she began to get frustrated with him.

It wasn't that she was bitter, she _liked_ Veronica. Hell, he could have even brought her along to pick her up and she would have been fine with it.

As long as she was retrieved at some point.

Why had she not just asked Veronica for a ride to Pop's she questioned herself as she rubbed her temples.

_Because you wanted to spend time alone with Archie, and a ride after school was the only way to do it._

She couldn't be alone with him at her house because her mom insisted they do homework at the dining room table directly in her eye line, and if they went to Archie's house her mother would question why they couldn't stay where they usually were.

It was a no win situation, especially with Alice Cooper. If chastity belts were still in production, Betty was sure she and Polly would have ones made of the sturdiest titanium.

"Please Betts don't be too mad, I'll make it up to you I swear," he pleaded "I will buy you as many strawberry milkshakes as you want, I will even let you have Vegas in your lap on movie night, and I'll-"

Betty cut him off, "Archie-its fine, but none of that is helping me right now, I still have to get home and you know how my mom is, she will freak if I'm not home by curfew."

"Oh..." He trailed off, hesitating "...I sent Jughead to get you." He at least had the decency to sound guilty.

Now Betty actually rolled her eyes, her body flooding with frustration. She felt her face heat up as her tone grew increasingly sharp,

"Seriously Arch, you know how he is, and you know how he talks to me, I don't think I can stand being in a car alone with him."

She continued on, "You know we grate on each other, you would be throwing me to the wolves, except well in this case it would be snakes."

Turns out she did not have as much sway with Archie as she originally thought she realized when he spoke again,

"C'mon Betts, he's not so bad, we've known him for years and he's the only one I trust to get you home safe. Reggie would just try to put moves on you in a random parking lot and I'm not even sure Moose can get to his own house safely on a good day." He pleaded.

Oh no he was not pulling the "I'm still a good friend card" just because he didn't totally leave her without help.

He carried on, "Besides you know Juggie, and despite your differences he is still a good friend and I know he will get you home safe and on time."

Oh, she knew Jughead Jones, before he moved to the southside it was rare to see Archie without Jughead by his side. When he started going to Riverdale Elementary he was the one that instigated the exclusion of Betty for nearly the entire year of first grade.

When they were eight he decreed that Archie's treehouse was "the boy's club" and that Betty was not allowed up. It was childish now that she thought about it, but it still had hurt at the time, and despite forgiving him internally years later she still thought about the times where their...discontent... with one another began.

The year she turned thirteen and had hit puberty, he had single handedly distanced her from Archie for almost a whole summer. Between fishing and camping trips that she somehow never got the invite for, and the duo always running off together for some project or prank she probably saw Archie maybe two days out of the whole break.

She knew that he needed a male friend to confide in and talk about girls with, but she didn't understand why it had to be Jughead. He was dark, sarcastic, and honestly a little weird. The exact opposite of Betty. Kevin was a much better choice in her opinion, but he lived too far away to ride his bike there everyday and he was far more interested in listening to Betty talk about the boys than actually hanging out with them.

She had Kevin but it had hurt Betty's feelings seeing the two of them whispering in the treehouse or in Archie's garage playing around on video game without her.

It wasn't until Archie realized that nobody in the neighborhood had as big a movie collection as Betty, or that no one else could make chocolate chip cookies as well as she could that she was allowed back into the fold. It also didn't hurt that her pantry was always stocked and she never ran out of ingredients for s'mores.

Needless to say, once Archie explained this to Jughead, there was really no reason to continue the "Anti-Betty campaign".

Besides everyone knew Jughead had a weak spot for s'mores.

Well, for any kind of free food really.

"Fine Arch, but please just give me some kind of warning next time, I would rather just know you aren't coming and walk home," she explained.

She hears loud laughs in the background and when he finally answered her he sounds distracted "-Yeah sure Betts sounds like a plan, listen I gotta go do something important," the volume increased and she could barely make out Veronica's voice, "-just let me know when your home."

Her eyes narrowed and she felt her rarely used sarcasm bubble on her lips.

"Sure thing Archikins I'll let you know how long it takes me to hitchhike home no problem."

"Yeah great Betts-" Click. She look at the screen of the phone as the call disconnected then looked toward the ceiling before letting out a long groan.

As she walked to the front door of the school she couldn't stop herself from muttering,

"Stupid ginger thinks he can dump me off on his prick of a friend- People disappear everyday, they'd get over the loss of one of the town's favorite red heads- Dump him in Sweetwater River- nobody would ever know," she smiled darkly before descending down the front steps.

She spotted a beat up green truck in the circle drive and allowed herself a small sigh of relief.

At least he didn't pull up on his motorcycle.

After all, she was wearing a skirt and she was not about to flash her business to all God and creation. Although it might be enjoyable to see the mammoth sized hissy fit that her bible-thumping mother would have after hearing about it.

The passenger door protested then creaked open after she pulls with her entire body weight.

She did not look up until she had thrown her cheerleading duffel and her backpack harshly into the worn middle seat.

She avoided looking up at his face for as long as she could, and she took care to look past his head when she finally worked up the nerve to turn her eyes up at him.

His eyes unnerved her, and if there was anything Betty hated it was how easily he could make her feel self conscious with just a quick up and down survey of her body.

So, there she sat, straight backed and with her legs perfectly crossed at the ankles.

"Elizabeth" he greeted obviously trying not to laugh at her posture and her overall stiffness.

She turned her chin to the window and looked at the sidewalk before opening her mouth, "Forsythe" she returned.

That ought to put him in a mood, she peeked over.

Sure enough his eyes were narrowed, but a smile still crawled to his face as stared at her expectantly.

She turned and ignored him, but failed when she felt him shifting his torso towards her. Her eyes flicked up, annoyed.

"Do you plan on buckling up or am I expected to hold you in?" He patted the worn edge of the middle seat that was not covered by her bags.

Heat flooded her face and crawled down her neck, as she quickly jerked to grab the seatbelt and click it into place. She dipped her chin to indicate that she was ready only to have it answered with a sly smile and a gentle "Your loss".

God, she hated how he spoke to her, well to anybody really, but mostly to her. It was always like he knew her deepest secret or that he had just finished getting fucked by someone in a nearby closet.

It was a mix of the two really.

A knowing tone with a hint of smugness.

It made her feel off balance, out of kilter.

And if she was telling the truth it also made her feel a little bit inadequate. Like he knew what he was doing to her and it was a game that nobody told her she was playing, one that had started without her knowledge or consent. She knew he didn't give a damn about her but there were times throughout their childhood that he made himself sound so earnest and sincere before pulling the figurative rug out from beneath her feet.

Years of this combined with childhood pranks and toying with her had culminated into their mutual disdain for each other.

As he pulled onto the road she took quick note of his mouth.

It always appeared to be laughing, not with her, but _at_ her. It was the opposite of his eyes which were always hard and clinical, assessing everything anyone did or said.

In short, Jughead was unlike anyone she had ever known. He moved to the Southside when she started freshmen year, and most people believed that one he became a full-fledged Southside Serpent that he would dump his old friends, but as it turned out much to her chagrin, loyalty was Jughead Jones's only redeeming quality.

The bastard was loyal to a fault, especially to Archie.

She jumped in her seat when he spoke again,

"What is with this Veronica girl that had Archie so twisted up, can't he find a low maintenance girl to get his rocks off with?" He spoke flippantly, obviously trying to bait Betty into some sort of conversation.

It gave her a small amount of pleasure knowing that Archie's behavior was irritating for him as well.

She deliberated before answering, "She's a girl he hasn't been with, so she is a challenge, plus Chuck is after her too and you know how much he hates him."

She snapped her mouth shut, that was all he was getting out of her.

His eyes attained a challenging gleam, she was too easy.

"What is with this chick? She have beer-flavored nipples or something?"

Her face contorted in disgust. As much as she hated to admit it he was far too intelligent to make such a base joke, she knew it was either to gross her out or it was to make her feel uncomfortable.

Turns out he accomplished both simultaneously.

She couldn't help herself, "No, you asshole she just has certain standards, plus she is a bombshell so she has the pick of the litter when it comes to boys."

Again there wasn't jealousy in her tone, it was just a statement of fact.

Veronica was beautiful, and mysterious, and to the boys of her school she was sexy.

Sexy.

That was not a word that Betty would apply to herself. She was more on the sweet, innocent, take home to meet mom side of things.

Jughead snorted softly, "Yeah that's one way to put it."

So he didn't have a high opinion of her, interesting.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him reach up to sweep stray hairs out of his eyes and into his beanie. It was a different cut than he usually had, and as much as she told herself she hated it she had to admit it did make him more handsome.

 Damn him. She hated how he could do whatever he wanted with his hair, cut it, grow it out, tie it back, even cover it with that ratty beanie 24/7 and still manage to look like he just got his hair styled professionally.

She had a chili bowl cut one summer that she made Archie swear never to talk about, but every once in a while a picture she hadn't managed to burn would surface from a mysterious source. One had even made its way into the end of the year slideshow.

Yes, it was a miracle she survived the year of the chili bowl even though it still came back to haunt her.

They sat in silence until Jughead rolled into her driveway.

9:00 on the dot.

He saw her eyeing the clock and cocked and eyebrow, "Your on time Cooper, I'm sure your mom won't go full Amber Alert on you until 9:05."

She suppressed a grimace.

That was one time. Not that anyone in the tri country area would ever let her forget it.

Alice Cooper was a little over protective, but what stay at home mother wasn't?

She grabbed her bags and reached to shut the door as he rolled down the window.

"What? No thank you Cooper? I'll be sure to let Archie know that you didn't appreciate his efforts to get you home safely," he threatened.

Her fists clenched for a second before she turned on her heel to face him.

For Archie's sake and for hers she would be civil.

Her tone turned sickly sweet, "Why thank you Mr. Jones, my knight in a ratty beanie, my savior in a dented pickup truck, what would I have done without you," she crooned before turning serious, "You've made your point now go home."

"Now Cooper is that any way to speak to your ride from school for the next two weeks?"

Her saliva went down the wrong pipe and she had a coughing fit while Jughead looked on amused.

She knew her face was bright red and her eyes had little tears in the corners.

"My _what_?" she hissed through her teeth.

His eyes filled with mirth, and something darker as he spoke,

"You didn't think he would get Veronica in only one night did you? He's taking his time, wooing her if you will, and that doesn't happen in one date. So he asked if I could take you home after school as a favor to him so he would get more time with Veronica."

How awfully generous of him.

Her tone was suspicious, "And what is in it for you, snakes don't work for free, even for their best friends."

"That's between Archie and I," he said as he draped his elbow in the window of the truck and began backing out of her driveway, "Besides it will give us something to talk about tomorrow evening," he said after a moment of consideration.

She heard his voice as she turned her house key, "Don't even think of walking home Cooper."

It wasn't until the sound of the tires had completely left that she let herself take a deep breath and allowed her thoughts to clear out,

It was then that she realized something.

Her cell phone was still sitting in his truck seat.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. I Hate the Way You Drive My Car

_'Twas told me you were rough and coy and sullen,_

_And now I find report a very liar._

_For thou are pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous,_

_But slow in speech, yet sweet as springtime flowers._

_-William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew_

There was no way she could prove it, but Betty was sure her phone was going to be tampered with before Jughead returned it to her.

It wasn’t like Jughead Jones to let her off easy and she was far too trusting and made the monumental mistake of not password locking her phone.

 Which was something she had been kicking herself for since she realized it had been left in the clutches of a lifelong opponent.

Surely he would delete all of her numbers or scroll through her text messages.

_Something._

Or maybe he left it alone simply because he had known how diligently she would overthink it all and wanted her to lose sleep at night all while he slept like a baby.

Yes, that sounded exactly like something he would do.

Not that it would matter, she only ever texted Archie, Polly, and Veronica.

And she knew all of their phone numbers by heart

Still, paranoia brewed in the back of her mind and for the entire Tuesday night after Jughead’s taillights disappeared down her street. Her mind just couldn’t let go of the feeling that it was somehow his fault she had left the phone in the seat at all. She was sure it had been in the side pocket of her royal blue duffel bag the entire time since she had entered the cab of the truck.

_Ugh, she would have almost rather Cheryl have her phone, at least she knew what kind of evil to expect._

_An old quote drifted to her mind ‘Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t. And she had to agree. She didn’t know what to expect from Jughead, it wasn’t like he could get into world ending mischief with her cell phone, but he could find out an awful lot about her._

That actually made her giggle.

_Like Jughead Jones would have any reasons to need to know any of my personal business._

_How silly she was, lying in bed overthinking it all._

She pulled up the sheet over her shoulder and turn on her side before drifting off into a deep sleep.

_____________________________________

The cafeteria at Riverdale High School was not celebrated for its divine cuisine, and it was most definitely not renowned for its silence. However, it was the center of all school spirit. Banners and posters were hung on the pillars within it. Bulletin boards for festivity volunteers hung at its entrance, and on football game weeks there was always something or someone looking for volunteers.

With a rivalry game on Friday it was very nearly considered blasphemy to not begin preparing for it by at least Wednesday. All of the classrooms and hallways were buzzing, but today the cafeteria carried its own weight in sheer enthusiasm as the students gossiped and jested with one another

The players already had a competitive gleam in their eyes two days before the big game.

A winning record was not just expected, it was required in order for any respect to be had by the student body and the town as a whole.

Within all the decorations and chaos a blonde, a redhead, and a raven haired girl sat in the courtyard eating lunch and struggling to avoid boisterous boys hoisting up their fellow players on their shoulders as a demonstration of spirit for the game.

No one noticed one tall, dark haired, football player leaning haphazardly against a black convertible exchanging money with a slightly shorter boy with a charcoal gray beanie covering his head.

No.

Nobody saw the look of utter relish in the taller boys face as the shorter spoke to him in an assuring tone. They didn’t see him slide an envelope to the boy, and they most certainly did not see the small up tilt in his lips and he pulled his beanie down slightly over is ears and walked away to a black motorcycle.

There wasn’t even a blink in the direction of the revving motorcycle engine as the boy roared southward down the street, with only a beanie and a leather jacket bearing a serpent to identify him.

\------------------------------------------------------

It wasn’t until Kevin had rattled the lunch table while quickly sliding on the bench that Betty snapped out of the daze she had been in since morning.

The gleam in his eye told her that he had big news that he was dying to divulge to the group.

However, it wasn’t until he had all three sets of eyes on his dark blue ones that he opened his mouth.

“Cheryl Blossom is having the party of the year after the game Friday,” He inhaled deeply, “Win or lose this will be the rager to end all ragers,” he spouted confidently, “and she is setting up a stage in front of her pool for the Pussycats to sing on while we all party on!”

Betty barely managed to produce faux nod of excitement.

Cheryl Blossom always picked one home game during the season to throw a ‘balls to the wall’, ‘no holds barred’ party at her mansion. She enjoyed keeping it top secret until the week of its happening. It was like her own small power trip. People practically kissed her designer clad ass for an invitation.

There would be a concert, swimming, dancing, drinking, and hell for all Betty knew, Cheryl could have acrobats and a three ring circus show up.

No, that would be too cheap for a Blossom.

 They would at least hire a Cirque du Soleil show to perform. _They weren’t savages after all_.

It was Veronica who spoke first, “Ugh! Be careful about speaking her name, you might summon her here and then we would have to hunt down a priest to send her back from where she came,” she studied her nails, “Besides you know we need an official invite to even get past those creepy metal gates.”

Betty almost scoffed.

She had no doubt that Veronica and Archie would be invited, and even Kevin had a pretty good shot at scoring an invitation.

_But herself? Not a chance in hell._

After what went down with Polly and Jason, Betty was still firmly on Cheryl’s “no-fly” list, and other than Vixen practice she did her best to treat Cheryl like the plague.

She already had her entire Friday night planned out in her head.

_After the game she would spend her night in a long hot bath with her candles and some Jane Eyre._

_Yes, it was the perfect evening. For herself at least._

Such was the plan, until a voice chimed behind her, nearly making her spit out her ham sandwich and send her open bottle of water off of the table.

“Hello, ginger stallion, heinous bitch, token gay, and blonde troll” she nodded to each of them before finally gesturing to Betty. Her hands were clasped in front of herself as she shot them a mocking smile.

Kevin recovered before anyone else, “Hello, Cheryl. Make anyone cry today?”

She pretended to look thoughtful before replying, “Sadly, no, but its only 12:30.”

Betty couldn’t prevent a small huff of breathe from escaping.

Cheryl’s predatory eyes fixed on hers, challenging Betty like a hyena that wanted to play with its food before eating it. Her scarlet nails shone as she reached in her purse which Betty was sure was worth more than what most middle class Americans made in a year.

Her vermillion lips tugged into a malicious grin as she withdrew four small slips of embossed card stock. They were only about the size of an index card, but Betty would have been able to identify them from a mile away. The gold writing reflected sun as she quickly skimmed the writing.

The text was almost more akin to a summons than to a party invitation but the idea was clear.

The invitation was intentionally cryptic, so that none of what the Cheryl considered ‘undesirables’ would be able to figure out how what time or how to get through Thornfield’s infamous gates. Even though they were only in Riverdale, Cheryl still wanted to have the illusion of superiority, thus the cards. They allowed for a plus one, but Betty knew that anyone that was even going to be considered as an addition would have already received an invitation.

Betty also was sure that before this semester Cheryl would have rather burned her HBIC shirt than hand Betty that card. It was at the very same party a year prior that Jason and Polly had their epic breakdown. Betty had not present for what was apparently a shit-show of epic proportions, and despite her and Polly being the closest of sisters she was never told anything but the barest of details about what happened that night.

Polly never said anything about it, and despite it being such a public display everyone acted as if all was well and good in the world. Of course, Betty knew Jason had a direct hand in the radio silence in the weeks to follow.

Nobody so much as uttered a word about it, even in the hallways, and if Betty hadn’t been wiping Polly’s tears the on the nights before she would not have even had the faintest idea that any sort of public fallout had even taken place.

She carefully took the card, and before her mouth could even form words Cheryl had turned on her impractically tall heels and stalked away leaving behind four stunned faces and the faintest smell of cinnamon.

It was Veronica who spoke first while Archie sat mouthing the words ‘ginger stallion’ with a look of sheer confusion.

“Bitch needs a cowbell so we can hear her coming.”

Everyone at the table visibly relaxed.

As they started coming back into themselves Betty turned the card thoughtfully in her hands.

She had never been to any of Cheryl’s parties.

_Truthfully she hadn’t been to any high school parties._

It wasn’t that she thought she was above it all, but with Polly’s going wild enough for the both of them she never could figure out how to work around her increasingly overprotective mother and her dad who thought it was his sole job on this planet to make sure his girls were in bed, safe and sound by 10:30 every night.

“Well I’m definitely going, I cannot miss a Cheryl Blossom party even if she is the antichrist in red lipstick and a Dior handbag,” Kevin announced.

Archie glanced at Veronica obviously waiting to see if she would be in attendance as well.

She grimaced but sighed, “I haven’t been to a real party since I left New York, and Betty and I can get in some bonding time at the mall.” Her brown eyes sought Bettys blue-green ones with a pleading look.

Betty was hesitant. She didn’t know how to act at a party, and she’d never had more than an odd glass of wine at her grandmothers on New Year’s Eve. Of course she was sure nobody would force her to drink, but she definitely would not want to stick out in the lion’s den.

She was a little frightened at the thought of going into Cheryl’s home, but a part of her was undeniably curious.

_How did the exorbitantly rich and popular students of Riverdale go wild?_

_You’ll never know unless you venture out a little and let your hair down._

After a moment’s hesitation, she acquiesced with a nod.

Veronica squealed with what could only be described as unadulterated glee.

While Archie did his best not to look too relieved. He blurted that he would be going too and that he could pick her up and drive her after he changed clothes and got ready after the football game.

Veronica shot a sly look at Betty and apologetically told Archie that Chuck had gotten his invite to the party earlier in the day and had already asked to drive her if she wanted to attend.

An uneasy knot turned in Betty’s stomach, pitting boys against each other never ended well. Not in the books, not in the movies, and most certainly not in real life. Still, she knew it was Veronica’s game to play, and although she loved Archie he was one of the most naïve boys she had ever known.

 He needed to up his game if he was going to get what he wanted, and if he wanted Veronica she was not going to make it easy.

She answered Veronica with a small sweet smile.

It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt, god when Archie first told her that he couldn’t love her like _that_ she nearly mentally ripped herself apart trying to figure out exactly what she did wrong or what was so wrong with her that he couldn’t picture himself with her. It had taken her a few months but she finally reasoned with herself and figured that one boy’s feelings, albeit one that she knew since she was in diapers, did not define who she was romantically. After all, if love was easy to find there wouldn’t be so many sad songs lamenting it.

No, she wanted someone who would fight for her, someone who was ‘ride or die’ and that was worthy of her body and soul.

Her fantasy’s often featured a tan, brunette, Adonis with a law degree and 2.5 kids in suburbia. She tried to keep it pretty tame.

It had not been an easy conclusion to get to on her own, but it was one that was necessary if she was going to be able to remain close with Archie.

This had all taken place before Veronica had transferred in from New York, which was one of the greatest and worse things that Betty could imagine. On one hand she finally had the girl friend she always wanted. Not that Kevin wasn’t great but his lack of female genitalia, despite his romantic preferences, prohibited him from being at the Coopers alone, thus late night talks and sleepovers were a ‘no go’.

However, on the negative side despite the four of them all being friends and hanging out together Betty started to feel like she never got to see Archie. It wasn’t that she thought Veronica was purposefully trying to steal him away from her, but this was a boy she had seen almost every day of her whole life, and it was difficult for her to transition.

Plus the whole Archie/Chuck situation was one that Betty adamantly tried to stay out of. Chuck was a go getter when it came to women while Archie was a typical nice guy. Thus, the tug of war with a certain raven haired woman. They had been going at it since September, a game of twisted capture the flag, only the flag was Veronica.

Veronica’s behavior throughout it all was one of the few things in this world that annoyed Betty.

She wanted to tear out her hair and scream _just pick one!_

But Veronica wanted to play with her food before she ate it, and her prey was all too willing to dance before she did.

Betty certainly hoped she would pick soon, she didn’t want to be stuck in a retirement home with the three of them still going at it. She probably pull her own plug to put an end to her misery.

The four of them finished up their respective lunches and went their separate ways, but not before Veronica could shoot a look at Betty that said

_Don’t even think about skipping out on shopping tomorrow._

_\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Vixens practice was brutal as always, but they got out a little earlier than usual. Betty supposed that Cheryl had some important Head Bitch duties to attend to that did not require the help of other vixens.

As a result, Betty was walking to the front doors by 5:30.

She stopped short when she saw a shiny black motorcycle parked illegally on the front sidewalk.

The person she had been dreading seeing all day was leaning on the handlebars holding a helmet, and gripping a small silver phone. His grease black jacket had a light sheen from the sun and his dark blue jeans were tucked carefully into his lace up motorcycle boots.

He had to be having a heat stroke in all of those layers. It had been an unseasonably hot last week of November, but the residents of Riverdale didn’t worry, winter always slammed into the town sooner or later. Betty was dressed only in her white and yellow practice shirt and a pair of thin pants over her practice shorts and she felt like she would have a heat stroke.

_How had he known what time to pick her up?_

She spotted Archie walking to his car at the far end of the parking lot and tried her best to signal him with only her brainwaves.

But, it appeared that his were a little distracted by Veronica bending over to dig in her Vixens duffel and then gracefully hopping in the passenger seat of the truck.

As he cheerfully drove away Betty felt tension in her neck and her mouth pulling into a small frown. She wanted to reach out her hands toward the pair of them in the car.

  _Please come back, save me from this._

“How-,” she started.

But Jughead interrupted her before she could finish,

“Archie told me that you would be out early today, apparently Cheryl had to go sacrifice some virgins or something so she told her two minions practice would be out early.”

Betty only mumbled back as she walked up to the side of the bike. It was black with white accents, and she knew it was a Harley-Davison bike, possibly a late ‘90’s model. It appeared to be in good shape, so at least if she was going to die it wouldn’t be due to a shoddy bike.

When she looked up at Jughead still leaning on the handlebars she spoke before she could stop herself,

“You look hot.”

Oh. God.

Foot meet mouth, enjoy your stay.

At the rising delight in his eyes she immediately began backtracking.

“I- no that’s not what I-, it’s like a thousand degrees outside why are you wearing layers, what are you insane? I don’t need to get in a wreck because of a heat stroke, I don’t want to ride you,” she corrected, her face flushing, “I mean with you if you are just going to pass out, it’s not safe and-,” she slapped a hand over her mouth.

He squared his shoulders and offered the helmet to her before speaking.

“Firstly, I have never been in an accident,” he smiled “secondly the layers are to protect me from road rash, thirdly I don’t get hot, well not in that sense,” he smirked making her blush and step away, “And finally, if you ever want to ride me you only have to ask.”

Her lip curled in disgust, “Not even if we were the last two people alive,” she spat.

He shrugged his shoulders in an infuriatingly nonchalant way that made Betty want to hit someone for the first time in her life.

Not even Cheryl Blossom could evoke such a temper in Betty Cooper, and she once dumped an entire vat of icing on her at a birthday party during her chubby childhood years.

She tore the helmet on his hands before clipping it under her chin carefully.

Her eyes turned to him but he only looked at her with a small grin and handed her the small silver phone in his hands.

She opened it and saw that it was dead before snapping it shut and shoving it into her duffel bag were it belonged.

When he still didn’t make a move to the bike she turned to him in irritation. Wide eyed and annoyed she gestured toward the bike.

At least she wasn’t in a skirt today.

He shrugged out of the jacket and held it out to her.

She merely looked at it, the green thread of the embroidered serpent and the white of its teeth threating to take a bite out of her.

“It’s just for today, you need something to cover your arms,” he nodded to the exposed skin “Next time bring something of your own to wear, because I’m not asking my dad for his truck again.”

A huff escaped her mouth.

_So it was the motorcycle from now on._

She glanced up at him before shedding her backpack and duffel and sliding the warm leather on.

Jughead’s eyes had darkened when she looked back up to him and she let out an aggravated, “What?”

He shook his head before swinging a leg on the motorcycle.

Her eyes studied his back up and down, and she realized why he wasn’t going to have a heat stroke like she had originally thought.

Only a black tank top covered him. It was tucked into his jeans held up by a dark brown leather belt. She worked to distract herself by ensuring that her two bag were completely zipped up attached to her body before swinging a leg over the bike behind him.

The top of her buttocks was sat at the edge on the top of the seat, as far away from him as she could get. She leaned forward as best she could while gripping the sides of the seat under her thighs.

His voice was irritated as he craned his neck to speak to her.

“You are going to need to grab onto me, you’ll fall off like that.”

She only shook her head stubbornly and dug her nails as deep into the leather as she could.

Suddenly the bike jerked forward violently, nearly unseating her as he revved the engine and pushed forward. She barely had time to think as she clawed forward and gripped him around his midsection in a way that was indistinguishable from two year old being given a piggy back ride. Her legs had even managed to make their way up so that they squeezed his sides.

She let out a grunt of irritation.

_That jerk so did that on purpose._

They had only gone about a foot forward, and as she looked down at the concrete where they were parked she felt his shoulders shake with laughter,

She unclenched one hand to smack him on the front of his chest, but did not let go with the rest of her body.

That was how they rode to her house. She gripped him for dear life, and he tried his best not to enjoy her pure terror too much.

Her cheek remained firmly pressed on his warm back while she tried to ignore the way he smelled of burning fire and something that was both sweet and spicy.

Surprisingly, her garage was open when they pulled into her driveway.

As she got off the bike and unclipped the helmet she saw his eyes rove over a large white sheet on the left side of the garage.

“What is that?” He inquired to her.

She answered stiffly as she shrugged out of his jacket, missing the softness of it on her skin, “It was a project my dad and I finished the summer before my freshmen year. I was supposed to get it on my birthday this year, but he’s been pretty busy with his new job so it was put on hold,” she hesitantly shared.

The look he shot her was only half annoyed, “That doesn’t answer my question.”

So she walked up and pulled off the dusty sheet. Underneath it was her pride and joy.  

Her father and she had worked on it every summer since she learned how to tighten a lug nut. The 1964 Ford Mustang had been Granddaddy Cooper’s when he was young and it had seen many good miles before it had been retired just after Polly was born. It had lay in their garage until one summer while Archie was at a six week summer camp, twelve year old Betty asked her dad to teach her about cars.

From there the project had begun. They worked on the car every afternoon when her dad returned from work, and every weekend that they could spare.

While Polly had been fine with a small town car for her sixteenth birthday, Betty had her heart set on that Acapulco blue mustang.

The only problem was that it had a manual transmission. It also needed a new engine block, but those were expensive and a little hard to come by.

 It ran, but it didn’t purr like Betty knew it could.

Her father promised to teach her how to drive it after she received her license but unfortunately it had coincided with him getting a job promotion. Now, she was lucky to see him at all during the week. Not that it was entirely his fault, she had heaps of extra-curricular activities and the river Vixens to worry about.

She would have asked somebody else, but none of her friends knew how to drive a manual transmission and Mr. Andrews was too busy to have any time for himself, much less for her.

So there her baby sat collecting dust. Sometimes when she had no homework to do or she was bothered by something she would go to the garage, play some music, and tinker. She could pick it apart and put it all back together with no problems.

Plus, she liked the repetition and the dedication it took to truly understand how machines functioned and how all of the small pieces could work together to power something so complicated.

It had crossed her mind more than once that she would have enjoyed becoming a mechanic or just being in the business of restoring other classic cars. It made her heart happy, but she also knew that her mother would have a coronary if she mentioned it.

She looked up at Jughead, she couldn’t quite tell for sure but from where she stood she imagined that her head came up to right about the top of his lips. But that was only if she stood right up against him.

Not that she cared.

She ambled to the passenger side of the car and pulled off the dirty sheet with a dramatic flair.

The look of utter shock on his face almost made her whole trip home on his motorcycle death machine worth it.

He ran a finger along the hood in admiration and strolled around the car before hefting himself up on the nearby work table. A low whistle rang out in the garage,

“I know guys that would kill to have a ride like that.”

Betty eyed his lace up boots covered in a light coating of dust and his well-worn leather jacket and snorted.

Considering the company he kept other than Archie there was a good chance that he actually did.

His mouth twisted into a secret smile that made her burn with curiosity.

“If you have this why do you bum a ride from Archie? Wouldn’t you rather go around in that than with me?” He leaned forward as Betty scrambled for a satisfactory explanation that wouldn’t make her seem too pathetic. She didn’t want to tell him that other than the fact she couldn’t drive the car, the rides to and from school were the only times she could really see Archie.

“It has a manual transmission, dad was the only one who could teach me, but he got a new job and couldn’t find any time to get me started, plus we only just finished it last summer,” she shrugged.

His head jerked from roving the paint of the car to looking at her with a doubting glance he asked her in a surprised voice, “You, Elizabeth Cooper, can build cars?”

The tone drew a look of exasperation on Betty’s face.

_Why is he so surprised? It’s not like it’s even possible or logical for me to spend all of my time at school, with Archie, or in my room._

But she knew from the way he said it that he thought exactly along those lines.

“Yes Forsythe, I’ve been building this one with my dad since I was twelve years old and I was supposed to get it when I turned sixteen but nobody has had the knowledge or the time to teach me how to drive the damned thing.” She spat while hurriedly pulled the sheet back over the hood.

He sounded thoughtful, “I never knew you liked cars.”

She nodded, sitting on a nearby work stool facing her driveway.

“I started the first summer that you and Archie went to camp together. I didn’t have much else to do and dad didn’t seem to mind when I watched him work so he took me in as a helper. It kept me out of mom’s hair and now I can fix just about anything with a motor.”

The heat of his gaze followed her as she rose to kick him out of the garage.

 Before she could speak he piped up in a low voice,

“I can teach you how to drive it.”

She stumbled and did her best to not look slack jawed.

Her mouth closed as she looked at him doubtfully.

As his hands found his leather pockets he hopped off the table and strode toward her, stopping only a few inches in front of her.

“Don’t look at me like that, before dad went to jail he taught me how to drive his shitty truck in the Winn Dixie parking lot.” He leaned a bit closer, “The car died a few years back, but it’s all up here.” He tapped his temple.

Betty was taken aback.

_Why was he being so nice? Not in the thirteen years that Betty had had the displeasure of knowing Jughead Jones had he ever offered to help her with anything._

Suspicion clouded her eyes as she took a big step away from him, crossing her arm along her stomach. Her back just barely touched the side wall of the garage.

“What’s in it for you?”

Her previous comment burned its way into her mind,

_Snakes don’t do anything for free._

His feet followed hers, and she did her best to flatten her back against the wall, maintaining as much distance as she could between them.

One of his palms lay flat on the wall at the left side of her face, as he leaned so close that she could feel his breathe on her neck.

“I’m trying not to be offended Cooper.” He practically sang. Betty didn’t care how offended he was just as long as he divulged exactly what he wanted in return.

“If I teach you to drive, I get to ask three questions, each of which you have to answer truthfully,” he continued, “you seem like a truthful girl Cooper surely this is a small price to pay, and I know a good girl like you will have nothing to hide.” His eyes scammed her from her toes to the top of her head.

“Fine.” She broke away and grabbed the keys off of a hook near the door to the house.

It nearly killed her to toss them to him, but she knew that in the long run allowing him to drive her baby would be worth it.

“Excellent,” his face broke out into a wide grin that made him look far more handsome than Betty was comfortable with.

As they took off out of the drive way she reminded him of her curfew, which he merely shrugged off.

He asked his first question almost immediately, and if Betty had been drinking something she was sure to have spit it all over the dashboard.

“Are you still in love with Archie Andrews?”

He says it so easily that Betty nearly forgets how invasive the question actually is.

It’s a difficult one to answer which is why, she supposes, he asked it first. So, like the coward she is her answer is the simple easy one, rather that the painful complicated one.

“No.” And she is proud of how strong her voice sounds in her ears.

He does a double take, a look of doubt on his face, but once he sees the look in her eyes he doesn’t question her. The surprise on his face merely melts away into an expression of deep thought.

He begins teaching her about the pedals, and Betty forces herself to focus on the instructions and not on who is delivering them.

No, she would not look at his long fingers and how they gripped the stick shift. Nor, would she, notice how his hair flopped lightly into his eyes as he turned his tilted his head to check all of the gauges on the dashboard. She tries ignores how his shoulders move and the small muscles of his exposed forearms flex as he drives the car down the small strip of road.

As they approached their first, second, and third stop signs, Betty realized something truly appalling.

Jughead was late to push his brakes. Every. Single. Time.

And once he knew he was in the clear to leave each intersection, he acted like a cinderblock had been magically grafted to his foot.

Tires screeching, car jerking, smoke bellowing from the rubber. Betty was sure her future had red and blue sirens in it, and possibly a white chalk outline.

In that moment Betty was glad Polly wasn’t allowed to go to gatherings, dates, and social functions without her. Because, if all the people in attendance to those things drove like Jughead there would need to be at least one Cooper child left to get the inheritance.

While Betty gripped the handle above the window with her right hand, her other reached out to grasp is shoulder in utter terror as he sped down the empty street, all the while quietly explaining when to shift and when to pop the clutch.

By the time they pulled back into her driveway, Betty was just about ready to kiss any sort of solid ground. She had both arms wrapped around his one, and for the first time in her life she felt like she was desperately in need of an alcoholic drink.

He barked out a laugh at her clinging to his arm as she tried to untangle herself. She crawled out, slightly nauseous, and turned her back to him in embarrassment.

He had slipped off his jacket after exiting the car and reached into the top of his jeans to tuck in his tank top. She had caught him fiddling with the belt and undoing his first button to fix the issue.

Betty hated herself as soon as she felt a blush cover her cheeks. She had gotten a pretty thorough look.

His body was lean, not wiry entirely, it still had enough muscle to do a bit of heavy lifting. His arms were only a little defined, but enough that you knew he had something to work with. He was smaller than guys like Reggie and Moose, but she had no doubt he could hold his own against them.

The belt was held between his teeth as he re-tucked his tank top, and he smiled around it when he caught Betty with the passenger door half open, ogling him.

“What? You imagining me naked?” He purred.

She snapped out of it immediately, before mustering up the most sarcasm she was capable of,

“Am I that transparent?” She asked, touching her chest with her fingers in an astonished flourish.

She then rolled her eyes under heavy lids, and moaned in a flat voice, “I want you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby,” she shot back before pinning him with a stare, “Was that your second question?”

He only nodded, a small smirk still on his face as he finished re-fastening his belt. The leather jacket was slung over his shoulder as he sauntered out of the garage. She did her best not to make faces at his back.

She turned on her heel and headed for the door in the garage that led to the kitchen. She didn’t turn around when she heard him speak with a snigger in his voice, “I’ll see you tomorrow Cooper,” the engine on his bike revved and she heard his barely audible shout above it, “I’ll ask your third question tomorrow.”

He took off like the devil himself was after him, and after the garage door was completely shut she stuck her tongue out in his direction. After walking in the door the pungent aroma of meatloaf tickled her nose.

God she hated meatloaf.

And manual transmissions.

But most of all she hated how Jughead Jones drove her car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I know I enjoyed writing it.  
> For those wondering Jughead’s motorcycle is a Harley-Davidson FXR 1340 Super Glide 1990  
> and Betty’s car is an Acapulco Blue 1964 Ford Mustang  
> Thanks for the comments and the kudos, all of them are noticed and appreciated.  
> Until Next Time,
> 
> TAWOTW


	4. I Hate It When You Stare

_“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger.”_

_― William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew_

 

The next morning Betty woke up later than usual. The alarm clock next to her bed seemed to buzz just as she was starting drifting away, and she couldn’t help but push the snooze button a few times more than she usually did.

She was exhausted.

Polly and their mom had gotten into a pretty heated argument the night before. After the plates were washed and their father had retreated to the basement for the evening Polly tried to convince their mother to let her attend Cheryl’s party with Reggie Mantle, who had asked her very confidently in the hallway earlier that day.

At least Polly had been keen enough to let her get an evening glass of wine down before inquiring.

 Unfortunately Alice Cooper would not budge.

No Betty, meant no party for Polly.

It wasn’t that Betty didn’t understand why Polly was so frustrated. She was a senior in high school, about to leave for college and her mother wouldn’t let her go anywhere without her kid sister.

And when her sisters pleading eyes turned on hers, Betty had to take care not to be persuaded too easily by Polly. She loved her sister dearly, but she didn’t always have the most common sense.

Betty was still undecided about the party, yes she was going shopping with Veronica but she hadn’t totally committed to any plans yet. As Polly slammed her door shut for the night and her mother paced back and forth downstairs Betty lay awake in thought.

_Did she actually want to go to the party? She’d never been to a stereotypical wild high school party._

_Polly had been to her fair share, and they’d always seemed like more drama than they were worth. Perhaps, she would protect Polly more by not going._

She winced.

_No, she would just try to sneak out and end up getting in more trouble._

_Plus, after last year’s fiasco Betty wasn’t sure she wanted Polly going alone._

She tossed to her side,

_It was settled, she decided just as her clock struck two in the morning._

_She was going, and not only would she keep an eye on Polly, but she was going have an amazing time doing it._

Reflecting back on last nights choice the next morning Betty wasn’t as sure of herself, most of the time things that made perfect sense at two in the morning weren’t even applicable to the real world.

She was more sluggish out of bed than usual, sleeping in an extra thirty minutes. Something she hadn’t done since elementary school.

As a result, she scrambled for breakfast and sprinted out the door, nearly missing her mother yelling “make good choices” as she bounded out to the passenger side of Archie’s car.

Archie seemed quieter than usual on their way to the high school, and she usually wasn’t one to pry, but her friend looked like he’d just been told there were no more puppies in the world.

She worked up enough curiosity to ask him what was wrong just as they pulled into the parking lot.

“Arch?” He hadn’t even blinked in her direction, “Hey? Archie Andrews?” She waved a hand in front of his face and he jerked his head to look at her.

 His eyes were brown pools of anguish.

She drew back her hand, “You alright Arch? Is everything ok?”

He inhaled deeply before lightly tapping his forehead to the driving wheel in anguish.

There was nothing but the sound of his breathing in the car before he softly spoke to her in a soft way that she knew he did with nobody else, “I think I blew it with Veronica, permanently.”

This was news to Betty, last she’d heard Archie was still giving Veronica rides home after school and that they were frequently seen ‘canoodling’ in the halls.

The look he was giving her nearly broke her heart.

_What she wouldn’t have given just a few month ago for him to look like that over something she did._

But it was different now, and she knew that if he was confiding in her he desperately needed help to fix whatever he had done.

“Archie you gotta tell me exactly what happened.”

His story was not long, but it was certainly a comedy of errors. He had made about every immature boy move that was possible. Veronica had wanted to see a movie at the Bijou with him the last night, and either she was giving extremely strong signals or Archie was more hormonal than she had originally calculated, but the night ended with a bright red hand print on his cheek and a date cut short.

In short, he had embarrassed the daylights out of Veronica, so much that she didn’t even want to talk to him in school or associate with him in general. She had dubbed him to be a ‘typical horny boy toy with only one thing on his mind’ and Veronica was not quick to forgive and forget.

 Thus, her newfound denial of all things Andrews.

After he finished his story Betty couldn’t bite her lip hard enough to stop herself from saying what she thought of the ordeal.

“You messed up big time”, she crossed her arms over her chest, avoiding the seatbelt and at the disappointed look on his face she continued “…But I don’t think this is unfixable.”

She felt a twinge beneath her ribs at the look of desperate hope that lit up his face.

“Just tell me what to do, I’ll do anything.”

She pondered it. But it was obvious that they would need help, and not just anyone’s help.

Betty was not a professional at romantic gestures, in fact she wouldn’t be able to identify one even if it came with a light up billboard. She never wanted to assume too much with boys so she simply spent her adolescent years totally oblivious to romantic advances.

When Jeffery Stromberry got on one knee and asked her out on a date in from of her entire seventh grade class she had been sure he had done it either on a dare or because he felt sorry for her because Archie was her only friend.

It wasn’t until a few months later when Archie explained that he had been dead serious that Betty truly felt embarrassed.

No.

There was only one person who could help Archie win back his woman, and he would be delighted that they decided to come to him.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At lunch, they asked Kevin together.

His answer was simple.

“You embarrassed the girl Archie. Sacrifice yourself on the altar of dignity and even the score.” He shrugged.

But it wasn’t so easy Archie explained, he didn’t know how to win her back from Chuck, even if he did succeed in earning her forgiveness there was no way that he could get her to break away from going to the winter formal with him.

Kevin just laughed at his worry, sometimes Archie was just too sweet natured for his own good.

“Chuck Clayton couldn’t keep a newbie freshmen interested much less a high class girl like Veronica, you still have a definite chance. We will just have to play this very carefully.”

Betty saw the two of them put their heads together to form a plan, and that was how they stayed until the lunch bell forced them to separate.

She knew from their conspiratorial grins that the next day of school was going to be very interesting.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Their plan must have required more preparation than Betty had originally thought because she didn’t see the two of them for the rest of the day, Archie had even dashed off after football practice barely even stealing a glance toward Betty as she continued to drill on the sidelines of the football field.

Cheryl was back to leading with an iron fist, but Betty knew that she didn’t want them run ragged the night before a big game, so even though they practiced hard they did not practice long.

Veronica had done her best to keep conversations about Archie out of the gossip web, but girls on the squad still managed to sneak glances at her and murmur in hushed whispers when they thought she was out of earshot.

This led to Veronica immediately looping her Arm through Betty’s as practice ended and practically begging her to go shopping.

“Betty we _need_ to have some girl time together,” he eyes were wide and pleading, “After all of this drama with Archie I need some serious retail therapy.”

“Besides,” she continued, “We need an outfit for you to wear so we can make all those boys at Cheryl’s sweat through their off brand Polo’s.” Her grin was positively diabolical.

Betty merely nodded, Veronica had seemed very out of kilter all day and if this was the least she could do to make her feel better she wouldn’t fight it, but there was only one problem.

“Ronnie you and I don’t have cars and I’m pretty sure Jughead doesn’t want to be my personal chauffer.”

Her face turned thoughtful before she spoke.

“I’m sure I can get a ride with Chuck after I change and shower at home, do you think you could get Jughead to wait around and give you a ride to and from the mall?”

Betty was hesitant, “First of all Ronnie, Riverdale doesn’t have a mall, it has a collection of mom and pop shops, secondly I don’t want to ride around on that motorcycle with him any more than I have to,” she took in a deep breath, “besides we got lucky yesterday that my mom didn’t say anything about me being on that thing with him, I’m pretty sure she would have kittens if she caught me on it.”

Of course being Veronica she focused on the completely wrong part of everything Betty had just said.

She gasped, “Jughead has a motorcycle? God, I usually don’t go for the full _Outsiders_ greaser bad-boy persona but that is so _hot_.” She fanned herself slightly.

“If I wasn’t so into corrupting the good boys of this town I would totally let him give me a ride.”

Bettys mouth quirked up into a half smile.

_Typical Veronica._

Still, something unpleasant twisted in her gut, not jealousy or anger, but a feeling of annoyance. She already had two of the hottest guys at their school drooling after her and she still wanted more? How much would be enough for her?

The image of Veronica wearing a leather jacket and hopping a leg over a motorcycle to cling onto Jughead burned into Betty’s mind.

She couldn’t quite figure out why it bothered her so much, it wasn’t that _she_ wanted to be with him.

 _Maybe_ , she rationalized, _You are just jealous of how easy it is for her. She could practically flirt with a brick wall._

_While you freeze up in the presence of anyone with a penis besides Archie, and you burned that bridge down with violent explosions._

_Yes, that had to be it. Jughead made her skin crawl, and that was the only steady thing she had going for her at this time. She could always count on that._

She pretended to be scandalized, “Ronnie! You have Chuck, and Archie if he can pull himself together long enough to earn your forgiveness,” she ignored the dark look that clouded Veronica’s face, “Besides I don’t even think Jughead dates.”

Just as Veronica opened her mouth to retort her eyes searched Betty’s face and she promptly closed her mouth, and in a rare Veronica Lodge moment of introspection she merely quirked head to the side, “Just make sure you are at Lana’s Boutique by seven o’clock.”

Betty did not like the look in her face, like she had a juicy secret that she couldn’t wait to tell someone. She eyed Veronica skeptically.

“I’ll do my best, and I’ll call you if I can’t get a ride.” Her tone was suspicious.

Veronica merely beamed, “Lovely,” before sashaying off toward Chuck’s jeep.

As she walked away only one thought was running through Betty’s mind.

_She is definitely up to something._

 

It was about fifteen minutes later that Betty heard the loud rumble of a motorcycle pulling into the lot.

All of her squad mates had already left and it was just around six thirty when he finally showed.

As he shut off the bike she noticed that his clothes were much the same as the day before, and just like previously he handed her the one helmet. He looked at her approvingly as she pulled out a denim jacket form her duffel bag and slipped it on.

A hand patted the seat behind him as she approached the bike.

It was then that her stomach rumbled.

An eyebrow quirked and he let out a snicker.

It made her want to slap him.

_No, play nice you are asking him for a favor._

She steadied herself with a deep inhale and exhale.

“Do you think you could drive me to shop with Veronica tonight?”

This had obviously caught him off guard. His eyes only blinked at her in shock.

So she continued, “If you think about it this is really for Archie, I’m going to try and soften up Veronica for him,” she closed her eyes, “and besides that I really don’t want to be alone with Chuck and Veronica, even if my only option is you Jones.”

He let out a low whistle, “Damn Cooper you really are a glutton for punishment.”

She only stared at him, hoping her would just go with this easily. Dark Blue eyes stared into light blue-green ones and for a fleeting moment Betty was sure he was going to say no and leave her in the parking lot.

“Fine,” he said and she jerked her head up at him in shock, “but first you have to feed me,” she nodded in agreement, “And I get a favor, one that I can call in at any time.”

She narrowed her eyes at him before speaking, “Nothing sexual or illegal.”

He only barked out a laugh, “But that knocks out anything that is actually fun,” at her glare he raised his hands palms out in front of him, “Fine, but there is no time limit, and if you refuse that favor I get to tell you dear mother all about your friendship with Veronica and your hots for Archie Andrews.”

God, she hated how he knew what would get her in the biggest trouble, it was one of the many unfortunate parts of growing up with him. He knew what made her tick.

She nodded and tried to ignore the gloating look on his face. Her hands buckled the helmet under her chin and she silently, but aggressively swung her leg over the bike.

Her arms wrapped around him as she scooted forward, pressing the length of her torso against him.

There was no teasing her this time, as he kicked the bike on and jolted forward.

As they rode, Betty couldn’t help but admire the total feeling of freedom having the wind rush past her as she sped past the buildings of downtown Riverdale.

He stopped in front of a small deli sandwich shop that Betty had been to many times with her dad. It was right across from an auto parts store and right next to Lana’s boutique, which she had directed Jughead to.

As she steps onto the curb she looks up at him, his beanie clad head, and the leather jacket wrapped around him. Then looks down at the blue and gold River Vixens t-shirt she wears and the tights she wore to practice that go down to her clean white cheerleading shoes.

What a strange pair they must look like to everyone else. The blonde perky cheerleader and the dark broody gang member.

To her surprise he holds the door open for her to enter the shop.

As she walks in her nose is greeted by the smell of fresh bread.

He ambles up to the cashier and places an obscenely long order, and just as she is about to chew him out for trying to order for her he turns to her expectantly.

Her eyes bug out of her head, “What? All of that food is for you?” She stumbles over the words as she runs her eyes up and down his body.

There is no way he can eat that much, if he did on a regular basis he would weigh at least three hundred pounds.

A hand pats his stomach as he looks at her. “Guy’s gotta eat, especially me.” Leather clad arms stretch over his head revealing a small sliver of olive toned stomach, and a black lightly sprinkled treasure trail.

She forces her eyes to look away, and turns to the cashier to order her simple ham and cheese sandwich.

To her surprise he pulls out his wallet for both of their meals. The expression on her face must have given away her extreme shock because when he picked up their cups to fill their drinks he merely smirked at her and walked to the fountain.

_Never, had she seen Jughead buy food for anyone but himself._

He never even bought anything for Archie, his blood brother, his best friend for life.

Not even when Archie was starving after football practice and left his wallet home. His friend knew not even to bother asking.

Jughead Jones purchased food for only one person: himself.

Or so she was told, it was not often she had the ‘pleasure’ of his company in a social setting, much less at a restaurant. She avoided going to Pop’s while he was there as much as she could growing up, and once they had reached late middle school age and he had moved to the southside it wasn’t all that hard. He and Archie usually would hang out next door and Betty would get the hell out of dodge for a few hours.

It was better that way.

How strange she mused, that he would pay for her so nonchalantly.

Sitting down at a nearby booth she did her best not to notice how the setting sun illuminated the shades of navy in his eyes as it filtered through the window.

Instead she focused on the salt shaker to her right, running it back and forth until it was plucked from its path by quick fingers.

Snapping her head up she lurched to get it back, but it was held far out of reach.

At her frustration his grin turned predatory.

“You can’t ignore me forever Cooper, might as well break the ice now instead of while we are both being tortured by Lodge.”

He was right of course, but Betty did not want to deal with his leers and the way his eyes peered into hers like they knew she was constantly trying to prevent herself from checking him out.

She only nodded in surrender.

What was she supposed to talk about? They had nothing in common, plus he thought she was a preppy little cheerleader girl with absolutely no personality.

Her eyes surveyed his sandwich.

“So….you like wheat bread.”

An arm draped on the leather top of his booth bench as he leaned back and pulled his feet up into the bench beside her.

He tilted his chin up and look on her mockingly.

“C’mon Cooper I know you can do better than that, we’ve had arguments with more substance. Ask me something interesting, Archie’s girl crush will be here in a few so you won’t be in pain long.”

She gritted her teeth together.

“Fine, how’s Jellybean?”

It was his turn to look suspicious. He pulled his eyebrows together before giving her a flat answer.

“She’s fine, her and mom are in Toledo with my grandparents.”

Betty only nodded in answer. He didn’t mind talking about his beloved sister, but it wasn’t something that was brought up often. Ever since FP’s first arrest Jellybean had been in an out of different houses with his mom. Betty didn’t exactly have the inside scoop on the whole situation, but being best friends with Archie she knew enough.

That after JB and her mom left, Jughead went about as dark as he could get.

FP’s most recent arrest occurred in October of freshmen year, he’d been running heroine and other paraphernalia in and out of Riverdale with the help of his Serpents.

Jughead and Archie’s friendship almost ended during the whole ordeal.

Betty remembered the night that she and Archie had just got finished eating a late dinner at Pop’s with Kevin and were exiting the diner when they saw Jughead waiting for them, wearing a brand new leather jacket with a bright green snake stitched onto it. Kevin had left only half an hour earlier so it was only Betty who saw Archie and Jughead hash it out.

It was the only time she had ever been afraid of Jughead Jones. She didn’t even try to get in between him and Archie as they went nose to nose. Jughead had grown over three inches over the summer and was just able to see over the top of Archie’s head.

But it wasn’t the waves of anger rolling off of him, or the words he spat at Archie that scared her. It was the pitch black of his eyes, the utter emptiness in his iris’s that reflected what was inside of him.

Yes, after seeing him clench his fists to prevent himself from hitting his best friend Betty knew, Jughead Jones’s soul had to be ink black. He had lost everyone important in his life, and in lashing out he was going to lose one of his only true friends.

They figured it out of course, they always did, but that particular scene was one that Betty could never forget.

It flashed before her when she saw darkness enter his face, or when she saw he was about to be pushed too far. The black rage that crept into his eyes and drowned out whatever happiness was inside him.

It was part of the reason she kept her distance. She wasn’t afraid he would harm her. No, despite his many flaws and the multitude of things that irritated her about him she knew that he would rather flay his own flesh than hurt a woman.

That was one of the few things that made her respect the hell out of him, despite not liking him one bit.

A rapid tap on the window snapped her out of her thoughts.

Veronica waved at her eagerly and gestured for her to wrap up her sandwich and bring it along.

Jughead pulled his feet back to his side and stuffed all of their food in a brown paper bag, grumbling slightly that he hadn’t gotten to finish his second one yet.

As they walked out the door Veronica eyed the pair of them.

“Well don’t you two make the cutest couple?” She teased.

Betty did her best to hide her horror and took a micro step away from Jughead, who seem to all of a sudden start radiating a ridiculous amount of heat. It felt like he was burning her and it only got worse as he casually spoke sarcastically, “Hmm yes we do huh _Betts_.”

Too quick for her to react he wrapped an arm around the tops of her shoulders and pulled her into him. She knew he was doing it just to embarrass her, but she couldn’t help the heat that crawled up her face, no doubt making her resemble a ripe tomato. His arm was heavy slung on her shoulders, and despite her attempts to shrug it off it remained stubbornly glued to her for the whole distance to the shot down the street.

_What was he playing at?_

_Did he still think it was that much fun to embarrass her and make her turn red?_

_She thought they had grown out of that after middle school._

Either way she was not sure how to react. So she simply remained casual, trying not to be swallowed in the heat of his arm and the warmth radiating from his torso.

The leather of his jacket was soft against the skin of her neck, and he smelled strongly of smoke, much like he did the last time they had rode on his motorcycle together.

When they entered the shop Betty realized someone was missing.

“Where’s Chuck?”

At her question Veronica tossed her hair over her shoulder and picked at her nails before answering in an irritated voice.

“He couldn’t stay the whole time, he told me to ‘surprise him’, and that he would pick me up when we got done.”

Betty decided not to question when she saw the Veronica’s irritation.

Jughead, however had no such qualms.

“So he just dumped you here and is going to come back around when he feels like it?”

And oh if looks could kill.

From the tips of her raven hair all the way to her toes Veronica’s posture filled with venom.

“No, you presumptuous prick, he has errands to run, which by the way I am _completely_ fine with,” she spat although her demeanor indicated much the opposite, “And at least he is not an overly handsy ginger Don Juan thinks that a first date is the time to cop a feel.”

Betty cringed, so that’s what went down. She couldn’t blame Veronica for being angry at Archie, but she also knew that Chuck was much worse when he wasn’t on his best behavior.

Not to excuse him for his actions, but she knew Archie was not the best with signals, especially from women.

After all he went nearly fourteen years missing all of hers.

Jughead only stuck his tongue in his cheek and raised his eyebrows before putting his hands up in surrender.

As they stumbled into the door Betty saw Jughead beeline for the nearest flat surface made for sitting, a small pink plush chair. He flopped down on it, and the contrast between him and the chair made Betty’s fingers twitch to take a picture.

Then, she and Veronica delved deep into the world of fashion, but only after Betty repeatedly took care to remind her that her curfew was in two hours, so that they wouldn’t be there the whole evening.

As Veronica zoned into her fashion sense the only thing left for Betty to do was hold her hands and arms out to hold the seemingly random garments that Veronica yanked off the shelves and racks.

They had been shopping together a few times since Veronica had transferred from New York, and she knew the drill.

Once Veronica deemed that there was nothing else left worth trying on in the store they each stepped into a curtained dressing room. The entrance to the cubicles faced the right of the store and were directly across from the assortment of couches and chairs that Jughead now occupied.

In the time it had taken for Betty and Veronica to peruse the store and pick it clean of worthy clothes Jughead had apparently taken a steady hour long nap. One that he awoke from with a drawn out yawn and a long stretch.

Betty couldn’t control her eyes as they lingered on the small sliver of skin that became exposed, and flicked her eyes away as quickly as she was able to manage.

_No, she wouldn’t be weak again._

Blonde hair swished as she abruptly turned on her heel and pulled the curtain shut, ensuring that nobody could see through the crack between the cloth and the wall.

She looked down at the clothes Veronica handed her and balked.

_She had to have given her the wrong pile. Because there was no way she was wearing anything that incorporated that much leather and flashed that much cleavage._

She filtered through the articles attempting to find something that wouldn’t give her mother a stroke.

There were a few nice pieces, a pair of light wash denim shorts, a cute blue flowy tank top, and even a crop top that wasn’t too scandalous.

She was used to cardigans and carefully pleated pants, not short-shorts and deep V-neck tank tops.

Veronica called to her from outside the curtain urging her to come out. She threw on the tank top pulling the jacket she brought with her and rolled the bottom of her jeans up to make them look like capris.

When she emerged Veronica only clucked her tongue and shook her head, “You’re going to a high school kegger, not vacation bible school. Loosen up a little.”

Jughead merely laughed and shook his head, “Asking Elizabeth Cooper to ‘loosen up’ is like asking Mother Teresa to take up stripping and gambling,” His shoulder shook harder, “Hell you might even have an easier accomplishing that, let’s face it she is a stick-in-the-mud.”

Red in the ears, Betty turned back and slammed the curtain shut. She didn’t think it was that bad.

_He knew just how to wind her up. He knew just what buttons to press, what words to say to hurt her the most._

_She would show him that she could have fun. Not just to prove him wrong, but also to prove to herself that she could be whoever, whatever she wanted. She could still be herself and have fun at this stupid party. Fun and she were not mutually exclusive._

Still she did not grab the most scandalous articles, she didn’t want to go completely wild, but just enough to shut Jughead up and maybe get a little gloating in.

Her arms reached for the light wash denim shorts that were short enough to show the tops of the pockets within them on the skin of her thighs. Buttoning them up she admired how they accentuated her rear and how the high waist of the shorts created the illusion that she was much more petite than she actually was.

The next choice harder, she threw a few of the hangers around picking through what Veronica deemed appropriate party clothing.

_Perfect._

A royal blue shirt stuck out of the bottom of the pile. It showed a hint of cleavage in the front, but had risqué cut outs in the back that she knew would require either a sticky bra, or no bra at all.  She pulled it on a smiled at what she saw in the full body mirror.

As she stepped out Veronica clapped her hands and gestured for her to twirl, as she expected.

What she had not expected was the look on Jughead’s faced as she looked to him.

His lips had parted slightly, and his face had taken a soft expression that she was sure she had never seen before.

Her throated cleared and she had the pleasure of seeing the tips of his ears glow as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned back into the chair spreading his legs apart.

“Looks nice.” He mumbled, before becoming extremely interested in the stores interior decorating.

Veronica declared that Betty had to no choice but to buy that outfit and spend the rest of her time helping her pick one out that would knock Chuck dead.

They only had fifteen minutes to spare before Betty’s curfew as they bought their items. Veronica had gone with a slinky dark purple number that Betty thought made her look at least twenty-five. When she told Veronica that she thought it would deter her from the purchase, but it seemed to only encourage her.

The three of them exited the store and Veronica veered off towards a hunter green jeep. As they drove past, Chuck only gave Betty a slight sneer, and Jughead an appraising look, like he was looking at a prize horse he was thinking about betting on.

It was strange, but Betty had seen stranger, so she merely shook it off.

Jughead was surprisingly quiet on the way to her house and didn’t speak until she started to swing her leg over the bike. She had him drop her off further down the street so her mother didn’t hear the bike and raise questions.

Turning her torso she headed off down the sidewalk only to be stopped by a warm hand on her wrist.

“I want to ask my third question.”

She cocked her head to the side looking at him expectantly and waved her hand for him to continue.

His dark eyebrows were pulled together in a rare serious look, and his lips were pressed together so tightly they were almost white. She wanted to run her fingers over them to make them flood with color.

His eyes were pure darkness. Matching the night sky, and they burrowed into hers as he spoke,

“Do you want to ride with me to Cheryl’s party?” He leaned closer to her over the bikes handlebars.

Her first thought was to laugh.

_Jughead was attending a North side Cheryl Blossom bash? She never thought she’d see the day, there had to be an extremely good reason for him to go._

“Cheryl invited you?” She queried.

He only shook his head, “No an acquaintance is bringing me as a plus one.” She couldn’t quit decipher the look that clouded his eyes.

Was it guilt?

Shame for not being able to get in himself?

She wasn’t sure, because just as soon as she notice it the look flashed away and was replaced by, hardened eyes and a stiff upper lip.

Her mind turned logical, it would make sense for her to ride with him. Archie would be chasing Veronica after the game, and she certainly didn’t want to bum a ride from Chuck, or god forbid _Cheryl._ And most of the other Vixens were under her thumb so they would freeze out Betty as well.

She gave him a soft nod, “Thanks, but I already told Ronnie I would go with her and Chuck, plus if you pick me up on that thing,” she gestured to the bike, “my mom and dad would crack out the holy water and crosses.”

He lifted his chin, agreeing, his eyes still searching her face, like he was trying to figure out a rather complicated puzzle. “Alright, but I’ll see you there Cooper.” His lips tilted and his voice crooned as he spoke again. “And that’s a promise.”

As she fumbled for her house keys she expected him to take off, but she only felt the heat of his stare.

She hated it, feeling him watching her every move, every twitch or out of kilter movement.

It was like being under a magnifying glass in the sun, only it was his eyes burning her, not a star billions of miles away.

She coughed awkwardly, and he shook his head as he snapped back into reality. Her legs stretched out into a jog as she trotted to her house a few yards down.

It wasn’t until the clicked the deadbolt back into place after she shut the door behind her that she heard the faint rumbled of an engine departing.

 

As she got ready for bed that night Polly nearly choked the life out of her when she mentioned attending the party. It was a weird feeling, but she was happy that Polly was happy, even if it meant putting herself in a slightly uncomfortable situation.

And as she prepared for bed that night, listening to the sound of Polly chatting on the phone with Reggie, she couldn’t help but yearn for her own late night conversation.

So she did the next best thing, cracking open her diary she copied down the events of the day previous, ordering and scribbling the details as they came to her.

It was the first night she had ever written of how intense she thought Jughead’s eyes were.

And as she snapped the book shut, she couldn’t find it in herself to regret it one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, here is another chapter. Thanks for all of the lovely comments and the kudos!  
> I do hope you are all enjoying where the story had been going.  
> And I'll try to keep updating pretty consistently :)  
> I'm not too happy with this chapter, so I may make some edits later, but I did want to get it out so let me know what you thought.
> 
>  
> 
> In other news I have made my very own shiny new tumblr account!  
> You can find it down here below. If you want to see me post new stories and see what inspires me give it a follow!
> 
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/letstakeawalkonthewildside
> 
> Until next time,  
> TAWOTW
> 
> P.S. On a final note I know that this fic is submitted under an M rating and I would just like to say that it will begin to earn this rating more in the next few chapters ;)


	5. I Hate Your Big Dumb Combat Boots, and the Way You Read My Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale or 10 Things I Hate About You

_“Here is my hand, and here I firmly vow_

_Never to woo her more, but do forswear her_

_As one unworthy all the former favors_

_That I have fondly flattered her withal.”_

_― William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew_

 

The next morning of school was uneventful, Archie was near silent the entire ride there, but not in a way that made Betty think he was still upset. It was more along the lines of anticipation. It may have also involved some nerves, Betty wasn’t sure. She’d known Archie long enough to know that the two feelings were one in the same for him.

It wasn’t until late that afternoon while the Vixens did their pregame warmup that she learned why he had been so focused in the car.

The squad had just finished changing into their uniforms from their school clothes, and were doing their warmup stretches to prepare for game time.  Out of superstition they did a run through of all the routines before applying any glitter or ribbons. Although it made little sense to Betty for them to warm up just to sit down and put glitter on themselves it was tradition and she wasn’t about to go against Cheryl and argue it. Besides, she liked calming her nerves and tying neat bows in her hair before they ran out on the field.

Just as all the girls plopped down in a circle a voice rang out off of the soon to be filled bleachers.

Fifteen girls sitting on the Bulldog’s end zone snapped their heads toward the toward the press booth at the top of the home side’s seats.

Betty Saw a redhead emerge from the booth, carrying a microphone.

“Sugar…,” His voice melded with the newly frigid November air.

He trotted down a few of the steps, “Ah honey, honey,” he crooned.  Archie strode across the second row of benches, before jumping down and leaning over the railing closest to the Vixens, “You are my candy girl,” his eyes turned to Veronica who had crossed her arms and opened her mouth in disbelief. He stood and trotted down the steps to exit the bleachers just as the entire Bulldog marching band emerged from the football player’s tunnel.

They joined in, “And you got me wanting you.”

Betty’s felt like she had gone deaf watching Archie. She heard no music, she only saw him dancing around like a court jester, making his way slowly to where Veronica sat. She quickly stood up and slapped a hand over her mouth.

At the stunned expression on her face Archie allowed himself a small smile of hope.

His voice rang out across the field, so loudly that Betty was sure Weatherbee could hear it in his office.

“When I kissed you, girl, I knew how sweet a kiss could be,” he stopped in front of her, “Like the summer sunshine pour your sweetness over me.” She allowed him to grab one of her hands, while the other girls looked on in a mixture of excitement and envy. Brown eyes peered into each other and Betty felt the unexplainable need to turn away and give them some privacy.

“I’m gonna make your life so sweet, yeah….” He finished off before turning to Kevin who had appeared from the press booth and giving him a big thumbs up. The boy merely bent in a low bow before disappearing again.

As the band filed off the turf Betty saw Archie lead Veronica to the sidelines.

His brown eyes had taken a puppy-like quality as Betty saw him grip the raven haired girls hands and speak shaking his head and pleading with her.

Although Veronica’s face looked hard from far away, Betty could tell by her posture and the way she continued to let Archie hold her fingers that she was no longer angry.

The rest of the Vixens had gone to the locker room to apply a new layer of makeup, and grab their official game pompoms.

As Betty turned to follow she heard quick footsteps gaining on her.

She smiled sweetly, “How’d it go V?” she bumped her shoulder to Veronica’s.

A hand reached up to flip long black hair over her shoulder, “Well, I made him sweat a bit,” she turned to share an amused look with Betty, “But in the end I agreed to attend the winter formal with him.” She didn’t even try to hide her megawatt smile.

She gave a little jump of excitement before turning her torso to Betty and gripped her shoulders lightly, “B, I can’t contain myself, I need to celebrate, we have to get ready for the party together tonight!” She chittered, “I simply will not get ready by myself.”

Betty only gave her a small nod while she continued to chatter.

“…and do you think we can do it at your house? Your powder room has two sinks.” The pleading tone that always made Betty say yes to her snuck in at the end. Truthfully, she didn’t want to get ready alone either, plus she still hadn’t talked to Archie about giving her a ride to the party, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a backup ride, even if it was Chuck Clayton.

So she nodded kindly again before texting her mother, telling her that she would have a friend over.

As the pair of them made their way into the locker room Betty couldn’t help but appreciate that despite the situation with Archie, she had a friend like Veronica, who appreciated who she was as a person, but also pushed her to do things out of her comfort zone.

Yes, they were like night and day, but she and Archie were so similar that somebody the opposite of her was needed. Archie would have just conceded and let Betty skip the party, but not Veronica.

Yes, just as much as she needed Archie in her life, she needed Veronica lodge. She smiled to herself unzipping her duffel bag.

She needed something unconventional in her white bread world, and maybe it would be Veronica Lodge.

But, she couldn’t stop images of her straddling a motorcycle, clinging onto a dark haired boy from burning through her brain. Warmth flooded to her face and down her chest.

And she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if  that person in her life were to be clad in a leather jacket and a beanie, instead of Prada shoes and designer handbag.

\-------------------------------------------------

 

 The game went better than even Betty suspected it would.  Although their rivals had graduated a good amount of their starters she didn’t think they would roll over as easily as they did.

By the third quarter the Bulldogs had a thirty point lead, and Archie had already made twice the completions the first string quarter back had. Reggie had a good game as well. Polly had come early to talk with him before the game, and Betty had spotted the two of them behind the equipment shed. They were only talking, but from the way Reggie kept leaning close and touching Polly’s leg she got the distinct feeling he was wanting much more.

Jason had been stiff all game, dropping a pass and nearly running into one of his own teammates. This resulted in a light smack on the helmet from Reggie, which turned into a shoving match on the sidelines. Betty made eye contact with Archie who merely shrugged ‘I have no idea’ before turning his attention on the play book.

As the two of them were separated by the assistant coach Betty couldn’t miss a smirk that twisted onto Reggies face as he walked past her, tilting his head her direction he only gave her a sarcastic nod.

_Douche._

He never used to pay any particular attention to her until he started chatting up Polly, but the way he looked at Betty made her skin crawl. His entire existence gave her the creeps. She’d almost rather Polly got back with Jason, at least he didn’t make her feel like he was toying with her any time they interacted. In all truthfulness, aside from the fact that his twin sister was a demon hell bent on destroying her, Jason wasn’t all that bad. He would even make small talk with her during student council meetings, and had bought her a drink out of the coke machine when she had forgotten to bring money after cheer practice.

Alice had attended the game and as Betty rode home it took all her will power not to sit in the back seat with her hands over her ears. In the front seat Polly seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

They were getting the ‘party house rules’ talk from their mother, the same talk they’d been getting since they were invited to Archie’s fifth grade swim party.

No sex, no boys, no drinking, no drugs, and no leaving without letting the other know. They were listed by order of what their mother deemed most important. Betty was almost positive her mother would rather have crack addicted daughters than ones saddled with teenage pregnancy.

They both only nodded absentmindedly at her monotonous voice.

Veronica who had hitched a ride with the Cooper’s was looking like she had severely regretted the decision, and was contemplating how badly she would be harmed if she tucked and rolled out of the car.  She had brought her dress and makeup for the party in her bag, as a precaution. Her explanation had been that she needed all of her remaining time before the party to redo her makeup and talk Betty into going in the outfit she had purchased at Lana’s the day before.

They scuttled upstairs to Betty’s room as soon as they could get Alice to take a breather. And around 10 o’clock they heard the tell-tale click of the front door as she snuck out to Reggie’s car.

Betty was cleaned, dress, pressed, and shined by the time Veronica had even begun applying her makeup.

It was a little ridiculous. If her and Archie got married they would have to wake up three hours early to get anywhere on time.

As Veronica was in the final stages of straightening her hair Betty got a text from Archie.

_Hey I just went straight to Cheryl’s. You good on a ride or do you need me to come back? What did you think of my performance?_

Betty nodded to herself, he had done as she expected.

_Sounds good Arch, I’m riding with Chuck and Ronnie. It was great, I’m glad it all worked out for the best._

Her phone dinged five minutes later as Veronica pulled on her dress.

_Thanks Betts, don’t know what I would do without you. Make sure Chuck keeps his hands to himself for me K?_

A smile grew on her face.

_Of course Arch. I don’t know what I would do without you either. See you at Cheryl’s._

As she pressed the send button Veronica emerged from the bathroom.

She gave Betty a hard look, “Please tell me that cardigan is coming off before we get to Cheryl’s.”

Betty only gave her an innocent nod, “Sure thing Ronnie.”

_They would have to pry the cardigan from her cold, dead fingers._

Veronica looked just about ready too, but sighed, not in defeat, but in a way that made Betty sure she would bring it up again before they walked in the doors of Thornhill.

They stood next to each other in Betty’s floor length mirror and smiled.

As they headed to the front door, Betty’s mother trotted in front of them guarding the door and clicking the deadbolt.

“Hey Mrs. Cooper,” Veronica chirped sweetly. But Alice saw past the sugary tone of her voice, merely running her eyes up and down their clothing choices. She dismissed the purple dress Veronica donned, deeming it a hopeless cause.

Turning to Betty she spoke, “And where’re we going in these clothes.” Her eyes traced the hint of cutouts at Betty’s sides causing her to pull the cardigan tighter over her shoulders.

The blonde stumbled over her answer, ‘Well…if you must know…it’s a small party with a group of close friends.”

_Lie, and don’t look guilty. Her mother could smell guilt, a perk of being a journalist._

Her mother scoffed, “Otherwise known as an orgy?” She did not step away from the door.

Now Betty started to feel the presence of anger creeping in as she took a step closer to her mother.

“Mom! It’s just a party.” She spoke, looking her dead in the eye, unflinching.

Her mother studied her for a moment, and it was so quiet that Betty could hear Veronica breathing next to her.

Alice only moved to the side, unclicking the deadbolt and opening the door for the girls. She let out a long sigh, before waving her hand towards the door.

As they walked over the threshold Betty heard the door click behind her and her mother mumble,

“And hell is just a sauna.”

It sent Veronica into a fit of giggles as they walked up to Chuck’s jeep.

Chuck merely gave her a nod as Veronica jumped into the passenger seat. Betty sat quietly in the back and barely had time to buckle up before Chuck shot off, tired screeching.

_Did he and Jughead learn to drive at the same place?_

Although she was buckled up she clenched onto the leather seat of the jeep with her fingers to prevent herself from sliding across the bench seat.

Veronica chatted upfront, but Betty tuned it out. She figured Veronica probably didn’t want her to intrude on the conversation too much, after all this was sort of a trial date for the two of them.

The ride to Cheryl’s was only about ten minutes even though it was a little out of the way from Betty’s house.

As they pulled up she saw Archie’s car and a few other cars that she knew belonged to her fellow teammates and football players.

What shocked her was at the very end of the street, farthest away from the wrought iron gates. A black and white motorcycle sat propped up by a small kick stand, and a helmet she recognized hung off the handle bars.

Her stomach turned in a way that she wasn’t sure was either good or bad. She had thought he was bluffing when he said he would be coming, and her palms started to sweat at the thought of seeing him in a party setting. For her entire adolescence the only interactions she had with Jughead had been with Archie or Veronica accompanying her or on their motorcycle rides home.

Those weren’t extremely public scenarios and she wasn’t sure how to interact with him at a party. It both excited and terrified her, and she felt heat swell underneath her cardigan. Her fingers reached to fiddle with a small gold necklace adorning her neck that hung just above the top of her blue blouse.

She was startled to see Chuck walking along the fence that connected to the gates. His lips moved, murmuring like he was counting. After what Betty thought was around twenty or so he stopped at one of the bars concealed by a tall bush, but that had enough room between it and the fence to fit two people comfortably. He wiggled the bar and it pulled out from the sockets easily.

Veronica smiled, impressed.

“So that’s how she gets people in.”

Chuck merely nodded and held out his hand to help her through, making sure she didn’t hit her head.

He seemed very gentlemanly, but Betty spotted him checking Veronica’s ass out as he followed behind her, not even bothering to offer a hand to Betty.

She had to admit, it was very clever of Cheryl. If you didn’t know the false bar was there you would think the grounds of her mansion were impenetrable. It was a hell of a deterrent for anyone unsure of the party, or that wasn’t invited in the first place. She felt almost like she was in the prohibition era trying to find her way into a speakeasy.

_Cheryl really takes this party thing seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to learn a secret knock before she opens the front door._

As they walked up to the front drive Betty could hear music.

Loud music.

Josie’s voice bellowed, and lights strobed with the rhythm of the song she was singing. Even though they hadn’t made their way inside yet Betty could feel electricity in the air, it tingled the tips of her fingers and filled her heart with excitement.

Betty searched for Jughead among the couples wrapped up in one another on the benches outside.

She hated how relieved she was not to see his beanie among the heads interlocked together.

Chuck confidently pushed the tall wooden door open, and the knockers glared at Betty as she trailed behind him and Veronica. Chill bumps rose on her exposed legs and she reached down to pull the hem of her shorts over the middle of her thighs.

Awe filled her as she took in the scene of Cheryl’s house. It was full of pulsing bodies, each holding a plastic cup or a brown glass bottle. A large blue and gold decorated cake sat of the large granite bar in the kitchen, and stacks of playing cards were being used at the dining room table. Chuck and Veronica headed toward the back yard, and Betty spotted Archie talking to Kevin near the glass door. The red heads eyes followed Veronica longingly and she saw his hand tightened on the flimsy plastic cup he was holding. Kevin murmured to him and he visibly relaxed before nodding.

Someone bumped into her back, sloshing some alcohol on the back of her legs. She turned around to apologize and by the time she brought her head up again Archie had left his post with Kevin. Music raged on her ear drums, a beat rattled the walls and seemed to pound her entire body. It filled her chest with a pulsing rhythm.

Kevin seemed to be enjoying himself, and she shot him a smile from her precarious position half way in the kitchen and he waved her over.

Stumbling around bodies and nearly getting punched by a football player that had tossed his fists in the air for a victory shout she finally made it to him.

“Hey Kev how long have you been here?”

He smiled a little sluggishly, “Only an hour or so, long enough to see Polly and Reggie sneak off to the hot tub with Moose and Midge.” The ending of his sentence had a small bite to it.

Nodding sympathetically she changed the subject, “What did you say to Archie? He seemed kind of upset.”

His head bobbed, “I just reminded him that V is going to the formal with him, not Chuck, and that if he makes a fool out of himself here that fact could change very quickly.”

It was Betty’s turn to nod, it was smart of Kevin to keep an eye on Archie, he wasn’t exactly known for his impulse control. Still, she was glad to at least hear that Polly was enjoying herself, even if she wasn’t too sure about the idea of a hot tub, or the boy that accompanied her in it.

“I’m going to find myself something to drink and a place to sit, see you Kev.”

He nodded absently, his eyes turning to what she was sure was the direction of the previously discussed hot tub.

A pang jolted her heart.

_Poor Kev, It sucks to want something you can’t have._

Even though she was over Archie, the pain of rejection was a wound that was not easily forgotten. She rubbed his arm before starting back toward the kitchen.

She let her eyes linger over the crowd, keeping an eye out for a leather jacket and a dark gray beanie.

A refreshments table was located just inside of what Betty figured was Cheryl’s formal living room, the rest of the people were mainly located in the kitchen, living room, and backyard. Betty didn’t want to contemplate what was currently going on in any of the upstairs guest rooms.

A cooler sat on the floor and on a small table were two punch bowls accompanied by stacks of plastic cups.

She searched the cooler for a bottle of water, a coke, anything that wouldn’t immediately inebriate her, and settled for a bottle that contained what looked like lemonade.

After giving it a taste she was glad they had gotten to the party a little later, if she had to survive off of this for more than an hour or two she would definitely need help walking around.

_Leave it to Cheryl not to provide any regular drinks at her party._

Sipping the hard lemonade she padded back toward Kevin.

Craning her head to see him over the crowd she nearly slammed into Polly, holding a silver can, trailing after Reggie who was suspiciously only holding a large bottle of water.

_Guess the Blossom’s aren’t as bad as I originally thought. It comforting to know they are at least a little bit responsible._

Still, it was strange to see Reggie opting out of a chance to drink alcohol.

As their back’s disappeared she felt a warm hand on her bare wrist.

“Hey Cooper.”

Her eyes widened and it felt like she had been kicked in the solar plexus.

She chugged nearly half of her drink before turning to Jughead, and she nearly finished the rest when she saw what he was wearing.

There was no leather jacket covering his arms, in fact there was nothing to cover his arms. Betty couldn’t help but admire the tan skin that covered them and the lines that ran where he had muscle. A black tank top was tucked into his jeans, which were in turn tucked into a pair of black combat boots.

In short, kind of wanted to run her hands over him and dig her nails in so he could never leave.

_Whoa there Elizabeth, easy_ t _here girl._

She lifted the bottle to look at it closer, there was no way she thought those things on her own free will.

Not even bothering to greet him she lifted her empty bottle, “Excuse me, I need a drink.”

At just the same time Moose walked by with full shot glasses that Betty was sure were intended for some kind of drinking game.

He balked at her, as she reached over and took two shots off the tray, but said nothing.

She could have sworn she heard a quiet, ‘those Cooper girls and their alcohol’.

Downing one she cringed, looking at Jughead, then pinching her nose closed she swallowed the other.

He only smirked at her, and leaned an elbow on the granite counter top. She could see the tantalizing tan skin of his chest, and she wanted to see how far it continued down his shirt.

As soon as she leaned over, a fog slammed over her senses, she was looking at is chest, and her fingers crawled to his belt loops, intending to pull him closer.

But her fingers missed, and she fell forward into him. She could have sworn a small shiver rippled through him when she wrapped her body around him, looking for stability.

He looked at her with concern in his face, and unwrapped her hands from around him.

“No.” she whined, closing her eyes and swaying.

He only patted her head and opened the nearby fridge. A cold water bottle was pressed to her cheek as he firmly told her to drink.

She may or may not have said something about liking it when he got bossy.

Before the lip of the plastic made it to her mouth it was ripped away by shiny ruby fingernails and replaced by a lime green shot glass.

“This will sober you right up Princess Buttercup.” She didn’t look at the source of the voice and before Jughead could tear it out of her hands she smiled and shouted, “Bottoms up.”

That, was when her night got a lot more blurry, and little hotter than she would have liked to admit.

Heat flooded her body and she had begun to sweat, she knew her cheeks were strawberry red by now, and Jughead’s face turned to disbelief as he saw how easily the alcohol took hold of her.

The expression was obvious.

_What a light weight._

Her answering glance was one of challenge.

_Say something about it Jones, I dare you._

He only lifted his hands up in surrender, and Betty walked back to the coolers for another lemonade.

Holding the glass bottle she wandered the party, not daring to go outside, but observing the other revelers. She ran into Cheryl as the redhead entered from the backyard. She appraised Betty’s outfit flicking her eyes up and down.

“Hello Prudy Judy, how are you feeling now?”

Cheryl’s face went slightly out of focus, and for some reason her quip seemed like the funniest thing Betty had ever heard. She let out a roaring laugh.

It was too loud she realized as Cheryl placed a hand up and took a step back.

Covering her mouth a small ‘oops’ squeaked out.

At the sound of her voice in her ears a long giggled came out, “Sorry Cheryl, no bibles today,” She tapped the redhead’s nose, “I don’t think I can drive home to get them.”

Heat seemed to be building up in the air around her, and sweat began to sprout on her forehead. Cheryl only gave her a predatory look before reaching over and handing Betty a mixed drink and whispering something into a nearby ear.

She took it happily, downing it in almost one gulp. It was then that a warm arm draped over her shoulders.

Somehow Jughead managed to push through the crowd of bodies, still holding the bottle of water.

“We alright here?”

The voice was slick, but there was no humor in it.

Turning around she wrapped her arms around his waist.

“We’re fine here Juggie,” she smiled wide laughing, “Cheryl just gave me a yummy drink.”

He grimaced, “I’m sure she did, come on.” He pulled her to his side, heading to the backyard.

They passed Polly and Reggie with Moose and Midge in the hot tub, and Archie looking distantly at Veronica sitting in Chucks lap on a poolside lounger.

With Jughead pulling her arm as they passed the crowd, they didn’t stop until she stumbled up to a gazebo with a small wooden bench underneath it. They had gone far from the house on Blossom grounds, and Betty wasn’t surprised to see that they had their own gazebo and garden area.

He sat her down gently, and she all but tore her cardigan off. Her back and arms had been sweating since she first started drinking and it was a relief to feel cool air on her back.

“Hmmm, how serendipitous for us to meet here Jones,” she flashed a big smile and batted her eyelashes at him in a way that she hoped looked coy. She nearly fell over on the bench, but his body was in the way. Her blonde hair splayed on his lap and a strained look emerged on his face.

However, he remained cool as he looked down into her face, “Leave it to you to use big words when you’re smashed Cooper.”

Betty only smiled up at him, “m’not smashed Juggie”, and reached a hand up to touch his chin.

To her surprise he let her. A finger ran down the side of his jaw, and over his slightly uneven lips.

She couldn’t help but wonder what he tasted like.

Looking up at his eyes she saw amusement spring into them as the corner of his lips twitched up.

He’d known exactly what she was thinking. She must have lingered too long on that one part of his face, because he gave her a suggestive ‘come hither’ look that she knew wasn’t real.

It was like being with a damn mind reader, and honestly made her want to pull her hair out.

After all, it wasn’t fair that he could read her so easily.

It had always been like that, even as young kids. He always knew when she and Archie were fighting, only by looking at her. His intuition told him everything he needed to know about herself and anybody in close proximity.

She remembered praying one night for him to fall into a sink hole after he took a look at her and deduced that she had gotten a C on a test in the seventh grade.

Her head came up out of his lap, and she tried to ignore any sexual connotations in his gaze.

She leaned her back against the bench, harder than she meant to. She wasn’t allowing her eyes to drift over toward him so she stared out at the mansion with party still raging within it.

It was he who broke the silence.

“You’ve never called me Juggie before,” He teased her, “but I’m going to give you a freebie and  say the only reason you did just now is because you got boozed up by Cheryl.”

She only nodded. It was a nickname saved only for family members and Archie.

“Does it bother you?” Her blonde hair whipped to the side as she locked eyes with him.

They ran over his face again like before, and her mind went cloudy again.

_Why couldn’t she just kiss him? Was there something holding her back?_

Her brain couldn’t remember as she slowly leaned closer, running her hands up onto his shoulders, linking them at his neck.

It didn’t seem to bother him, in fact from what Betty could tell he seemed pretty interested. His eyes kept flicking to her lips, and his hands danced around like he wasn’t sure where exactly to put them.

Even through the mist in her mind Betty could think of a few good places for those long fingers and warm palms.

When they were only a few inches apart word vomit kicked in, as she swayed in front of him.

“Hey…” a small guffaw escaped her lips and she couldn’t stop herself from continuing, “Your eyes have a little green in them.”

His eyes crinkled and his lips pulled over his white teeth.

It was a nice moment with her long standing childhood enemy. One that would have remained beautiful in her mind, if not for the actual vomit that burned its way up her throat.

She tilted her head down just quick enough for it to splatter all over his shoes. He rose up in alarm, holding her hair away from her face.

_Good_ , she thought, _I hated those big dumb combat boots_.

\--------------------------------------------

They found a garden hose nearby for him to rinse his feet, and he gripped Betty tightly so she wouldn’t stumble and hurt herself. Sitting her down on a small settee in the large foyer of the Blossom mansion he told her to wait for him as he told Veronica, Archie, and Polly that he was giving her a ride home.

A large water bottle was thrust in her hands to sober her up enough to ride on the motorcycle, but he still wasn’t confident in her ability to stay upright on the bike.

That was how Jughead Jones ended up behind her on the bike, his arms around her holding onto the handlebars as she leaned into his chest. He pulled his serpent jacket out of the side compartment of the bike and slipped it on.

She pulled the leather edges over her as they took off, enjoying the smell of the worn material and the boy that was within it. On his head was the helmet, he had tied to let her wear it, but he wasn’t able to see over her head with it on.

She wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t want her to puke all over him again or not, but he drove much slower and more carefully than she had ever seen him.

They had practically coasted into her driveway. He turned off the bike but didn’t immediately move to let her off. They sat there in the dark while she leaned into him, his arms around her, holding her body in place on the bike. She took one last long inhale and he held out a hand to help her off. She couldn’t make sense of it, but even as she separated from him and walked up to the door the warmth of his body never left her.

Like the days previous he did not leave until she had closed the front door behind her. The bike barely made a sound as he took off down the street.

She plodded up the stairs and flopped onto her bed, falling fast asleep.

The next morning she woke up with a full bladder, a raging headache, and a leather jacket wrapped tightly around her body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is finally, things are really getting interesting ;)  
> Hope you all enjoyed!


	6. I Hate You So Much It Makes Me Sick, It Even Makes Me Rhyme

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go guys, sorry it took so long, school has started but I haven't forgotten about you all. I will definitely finish this story, it just may not have very structured updates.

_ “My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.” _

_-_ _ William Shakespeare, the Taming of the Shrew _

 

 

Betty leaned forward up to her bathroom sink and peered into her reflection.

She flipped on a second light and her mouth pulled into a deep frown.

_ I look like hell. _

Dark circles had formed under her eyes, and her hair was wild array of tangles and knots. 

The light walls of her room reflected behind her in the mirror, and the sunlight shone through her wide window, illuminating her bedspread and the many picture frames that were strewn throughout her space.

There was only one area where it seemed no light would touch. A black hole in an otherwise sunny area, sucking away all nearby light with its smoky aura.

That damned leather jacket lay on the end of her bed.

Mocking her. 

Teasing her. 

Tempting her. 

She had woken up cocooned within the leather, her nose tucked into the sleeve.

Reluctantly she admitted to herself when she woke up that she enjoyed the aroma that came with the offending item.

She hadn’t wanted to take it off to get in the shower. 

It had been a comfort, and although she had remembered the night before well enough she had still been startled waking up in her bed early that morning.

It was the ring of her phone, indicating a text from Archie that had woken her

_ Ronnie wanted to meet at Pop’s for breakfast, you in? _

Her original reaction had been to roll over in her covers, and pull the jacket tighter around her body.

Her stomach, however forced her to almost immediately reconsider.

_ Yeah, give me a ride? We can pick her up together. _

His answer came only a moment later.

_ Cool, thanks Betts. _

That was nearly half an hour ago, and now there she stood, pondering her reflection. A piping hot shower had relaxed her, as had a few aspirin to relieve her pounding headache.

As she got dressed, pulling on thick wool tights over a denim skirt she was struck with decision.

Well, more of a logistical problem really.

Pushing her head through a knit sweater she picked up her phone and texted Archie.

_ Is Jughead coming? _

Teeth nibbled on her pinkie nail as she waited for him to reply.

_ Yeah he’s meeting us there. _

On the verge of what she figured was panic her fingers pulled at a stray string on the hem of her skirt. 

_ I can’t do this. _

_ I vomited all over his shoes for god's sake. _

_ Plus, he was kind of a prick last night. _

A short honk blared at her front door.

_ But he did take care of you. _

_ And he got you home in one piece. _

_ Plus, I have to return his jacket at some point. _

Archie’s impatience was tangible, as she stood staring at the jacket.

_ I can’t keep him waiting, just make a decision. _

The jacket seemed to be a living breathing thing, begging for her attention, purposefully distracting her.

Look at me, look at me.

She quickly pulled on her purse and draped it across her body. 

Then abruptly she picked up the jacket and draped it over her arm.

_ Now you're committed to this Betty. _

She sprinted down the stairs and after she had locked the door and ensured their spare key was still in the usual place she took a calming breath and walked steadily to her impatient best friend.

Archie’s eyes bugged out as she hauled herself into his passenger seat, but he said nothing.

_ Smart boy. _

As they rode to Veronica’s she could feel his eyes wandering to the black lump in her lap trying to figure out if either she was stupid enough to steal from his friend, or if body snatchers had somehow gotten the both of them.

When they pulled up to Veronica’s apartment, Betty politely jumped out of the car and headed to the backseat. The raven haired gave her a quick hug and smile, before letting her eyes drag along the object in Betty’s hands.

A sly smile crossed her face and her eyes filled with mischief.

_ “Later” _ she mouthed. It made Betty wish she had thought of a better story to explain why she had the jacket in the first place.

Honestly, Betty was a little terrified of police chief level of grilling she would get from her friend. At least Archie knew how to leave things alone. Veronica would dig and dig until she knew even the miniscule details. Frankly, it was a little exhausting, and it was hard to keep a story straight, especially a false one with Veronica involved.

Honestly she would be a fantastic terrorist interrogator. They would spill their secrets in a matter of hours. Minutes if it was Cheryl grilling them. Betty was sure of it.

As they pulled into Pop’s Betty noticed that Jughead’s motorcycle was already parked in front of the diner.

It felt like pins and needles had flooded her fingers and toes. She felt like she was floating away, and she searched for a way to center herself.

_ He’s probably already eaten his third stack of pancakes. _

For a strange reason, the fact that she knew this comforted her.

_ It's just Jughead  _ she reminded herself,  _ you’ve known him since you were little, you even hated him, there is no reason to be nervous about seeing him. _

As the trio walked in she spotted him sitting in a booth near the front of the restaurant, leaning so his back was against the window, typing on a small black laptop.

His dark brows were furrowed and his lips had slightly parted, leaving a small gap between them as he focused himself on whatever he was typing. As they walked up she didn’t have the guts to ask him what he was writing about, and judging by the way he abruptly snapped the laptop shut she figured he wasn’t in a sharing mood.

Straightening himself up he eyed her two companions for a fleeting moment before turning his attention to her. The feeling of his eyes focusing in on her made her think she was going to float away..

She felt queasy, like she had just gotten done riding too many carnival rides, and if it hadn’t been for Veronica yanking her toward Jughead’s side of the booth she probably would have made up an excuse to leave.

Not that she really had any sort of ride home.

It was like life was playing a cruel joke on her, and she realized that this was indeed true as the beanie clad boy gave her smug smile and patted the seat next to him.

Her arm reached out stiffly, holding out his jacket with only two fingers, pinching it like it was a dirty rag or a dead rat rather than the thing she had snuggled with only an hour earlier.

His long fingers gently gripped it, brushing her hand for a moment longer than she thought necessary, his fingers tracing the back of her hand and his mouth widening at her flushed face.

Sitting on the edge of the vinyl seat she peered at Archie and Veronica across from.

Each had raised eyebrows and a conspiratorial smile, and it made Betty want to ask if this was meant to be breakfast and a show. All they needed was a bowl of popcorn between them. It felt like she and Jughead were the entertainment, like a matador and a bull.

Honestly she wasn't sure which one of them was which.

Then she remembered some of the carnal thoughts that had crossed her mind the night before and she was almost positive she was the lion. Through her drunken haze she had wanted to devour him, dig her nails into him and make his body hers. All of her frustration had welled up in her chest and made her feel reckless, dangerous, and  desperate for his body on hers.

She had never been like that with anyone before, not even Archie.

Veronica’s voice cut off her train of thought.

“So where did you two end up last night?” a smirk was plastered on her flawlessly made up face.

Archie leaned forward at the question with a look of curiosity and perhaps a touch of what Betty thought might be concern.

Jughead spoke up, “I dropped her home, leave it to Cooper to get totally wasted within an hour of being at a party,” he drummed his knuckles on the table “besides I gave that party a chance, and it wasn’t my scene. I can only handle so much of Cheryl before wanting to drown myself in Sweetwater river .”

They nodded in understanding.

Her voice was softer than she meant it to be when she looked at them.

“What did you guys do after we left?”

Veronica and Archie looked at each other hesitantly.

“Chuck started being a jerk so I gave her a ride home,” Archie spoke up apparently nervous about Betty judging the situation.

Veronica nodded vigorously, “Yeah turns out Chuck is kind of a douche nozzle, and I was stupid not to see it all along.” She smiled sweetly at Archie who sent one back.

Betty felt a warm feeling bubbling deep within herself. The happiness she felt for them was genuine, even though it came from a previously wounded place in her soul. She wanted both of them to be happy, and if that meant the two of them were together then she would wish them all the happiness in the world.

Smiling at them she nodded, and reached across the table to grab one of the hands that Veronica had been wringing.

“I’m happy you guys figured it out.” Her smile was bright and the two of them visibly relaxed.

A moment of silence rang for a brief moment before Archie’s voice commanded the air.

“Juggie what were you talking to Reggie about when we got there?”

His tone was a warning. Although the two of them played football together they didn’t always get along. They were civil, but he was definitely not somebody that Jughead would ever talk to, especially not without spoiling for some sort of fight. Although he and Jughead were best friends he knew what the serpents were and what they did to survive. His intention was clear, he wanted to know if their interaction had been a ‘business’ meeting.

If his words had shocked or offended Jughead, the boy didn’t hardly show it. His eyes only widened slightly as he leaned back. 

“He was just apologizing for making me spill my drink all over my jacket.” He cocked his head to the side, “What do you think I’m the kind of douche that would just bust into a party in a tank top to show off to the ladies?” He stared intently at the Redhead, playing a game of words.

Archie held his eyes for a solid second, drilling in and not letting go. 

Then the two of them laughed and Archie reached over to slap him on the shoulder. Crisis averted.

Betty exchanged a look with Veronica.

_ Boys are so weird. _

Still, it was strange Betty thought.

_ Reggie’s not really one for apologies. _

They ordered their breakfast, and Veronica launched into the story of how Polly and Reggie ended up in the hot tub  with Jason and Ethel. 

Betty had wondered how her sister had fared with Reggie throughout the night. Apparently Jason hadn’t given them much time alone. Not clinging to the couple, but hovering. It was weird, Betty had to admit, that he was so worried about Polly when he had been the one to break it off. 

If she was being honest she had always thought he and Polly would get married after high school. He had never been exceptionally nice to Betty, but until their explosion he had always been decent to her. Even her mother hadn’t been able to find anything bad to say about the boy. 

Of course that was until World War III happened at the Blossom party. Then it was all ‘ _ I knew it’  _ and ‘ _ I told you so Polly’. _

As there food was delivered Archie launched into another apparently hilarious story from the party and Betty felt a weight drape over the top of the bench seat.

Jughead had slung his arm around the top of Betty’s shoulders, not touching, but close enough that she knew it was there.

Veronica was so enamored with his tale that she didn’t catch the pleading look from Betty. She and Archie were in their own little bubble, which left Betty on the outside to defend herself from a snake.

Shrugging her shoulders, she scooted away, further so that nearly half of her ass was hanging off of the red vinyl seat.

The arm stayed slung atop the bench seat, but the voice had been right in her ear.

“Someone still has her panties in a twist.” His hot breath tickled the shell of her ear and trailed down to where her shirt collar met her neck.

Her reply didn’t hold as much venom as she intended.

“Don’t, for one minute, think that you had any effect whatsoever on my panties.” Her teeth had snapped together and her arms quickly crossed over her body. 

Hopefully he would just shut up and they could finish this meal in peace, listening to Archie and Veronica rave about the party.

_ No such luck. _

He persisted, tilting his head in her eye line. His trademark beanie blocking her view of Veronica seated directly across from her.

“Then what did I have an effect on?” He teased, not in his usual hateful way, but Betty had learned from the past that a snake could wear and shed many skins, and ‘friendly Jughead’ was  one that Betty had seen in action a few too many times.

Fine.

She could play along. She tilted her head, arching her eyebrow at him.

Her eyelashes even batted themselves a little bit, judging from the slight shock in his face, he was at least a little bit thrown off.

Her tone was sugary sweet when she replied.

“Other than my upchuck reflex? Nothing.”

She held his eyes for as long as she possibly could, but in the end she looked down to pick at the hem of her shirt. 

She felt him lean back to say something to Archie and to steal a hash brown off of his plate.

Veronica had been laying it on thick for the whole meal, hand on the leg, leaning into Archie’s chest, and asking to share what she dubbed a ‘post-breakfast pre-lunch milkshake’.

Dread filled Betty’s stomach at the thought of the ride home with the two of them. There was only so much of their love-fest that she could take, and she was pretty sure that they would want some time alone to hang out. That was apparently something very rare for the two of them.

Blood rushed to her face as she deliberated.

_ Archie and Veronica being mushy or a ride home with Dallas Winston?” _

Honestly it should have been tougher decision for her.

“Guys why don’t you two hang out today, I’ll just get Jughead to give me a ride home.”

The two across from her only recoiled in slight shock before shooting her a grateful look. The boy in question only picked his teeth with a toothpick.

Archie turned his wide eyes to the jacket clad boy, “Do you mind Juggie? I can drop her home if you need me to.” Despite all of his politeness he and Veronica were both already nearly out of the booth, giddy with the thought of one on one time.

Jughead pretended to ponder it, before breaking into an eye roll, “You to kids have fun, I can take Prissy Pants home.”

They were in Archie’s truck before the little bell on Pop’s door had stopped ringing. 

Betty bolted up, grasping the strap of her small wallet with a death grip as Jughead lazily crawled out of the booth.

Thanking Pop they headed to the lot, and Betty again couldn’t help but admire his bike, clean and shiny.

It had been well loved, she could tell just by looking at it. It made the mechanic in her smile.

Then, a thought entered her brain. Not one she would have considered just a week ago, and definitely not one she should be thinking about acting on right now. But, sometimes her lips were much looser than she liked.

“Can I ride in front?” 

He only stared at her blankly.

But she pressed on, “You know, like last night?”

He studied her for a moment, then handed her the helmet.

His reply was flat, “No, those were special circumstances.”

Black straps clicked together underneath her chin.

“C’mon please Jughead, it’s not like I’m going to be driving, I just want to see what it’s like when I’m not totally wasted.”

That was when his face turned slightly pink. A dark black boot landed on the other side of the bike as he swung onto it.

Not looking at her, he spoke again, quieter.

“I don’t want you riding in front ok? Just get on Cooper” He revved the engine, “Besides it is my bike and you can’t wear the helmet if you’re up front.”

Damn. She couldn’t argue with that logic.

Nodding she sat herself behind him, and carefully wrapped her arms around his warm body. She wasn’t as hesitant this time around, in fact she was a little bit thrilled. Despite his faults, she trusted Jughead to get her wherever she needed to go safely. He knew how to make it fun, but he never drove stupidly. Claws didn’t form with her fingers. This time around her palms merely slid to his chest, holding herself snug to him, her legs squeezing his thighs and hips.

She could have sworn a shiver wracked him as her nails grazed his abdomen on their way to his chest.

As they took off down the road she let her mind wander.

She loved watching the road fly by her feet, and the feeling of the cars passing by them on the roads. It felt like pure freedom, unadulterated joy. And if she could have bottled it forever she would have. She questioned many things that Jughead Jones did, but his choice to ride this bike was not one of them.

The bike slowed down and she realized that she had been so distracted that she was still holding onto him in her driveway. His voice felt far away, but came into focus as she pulled off the thick helmet.

She saw that his gaze had fallen on her tarp covered car for the second time, and he popped the kickstand on the motorcycle as Betty got off.

There was a beat of silence, not awkward, but tense.

He seemed to be struggling with himself as he asked her.

“Do you want another driving lesson?”

She had almost forgotten that he had offered to teach her. Between parties, school, and homework it hadn’t crossed her mind much the past couple of days.

It was a Saturday, and it would give her plenty of time to practice with someone in the car. Besides her mom was at a journalist meeting until eight, and her dad was at the office like usual.

Polly’s car wasn’t in the driveway, so Betty assumed she had gone out to spend her Saturday with friends.

_ Hopefully good ones  _ she prayed silently.

It was a little odd for him to be so nice, not without something to get in return, but with the thought of her other friends getting hot and heavy wherever they were and Kevin being too hungover to hang out she figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot.

It would give her some time to figure what he was trying to gain from this.

She looked up at him, and let a small smile cross her lips.

“Yeah, I’ll grab the keys. I’ll warn you I might have gotten worse since the last time”

He only waved a hand.

“I’ve got all day.”

And for some reason this made Betty feel warm inside, if not a little nauseous once again.

“But you will have to feed me lunch.”

And then suddenly the warm feeling was gone, she rolled her eyes and nodded.

“Not until at least one.”

He snorted and nodded in agreement before pulling off the sheet waiting for her to unlock the passenger door.

\------------------

The lesson went smoothly, frustrating as it was for Betty.

It was so easy for him, and even with all her talent with cars she was not picking up the driving mechanics as quickly as she would have liked.

Surprisingly, he was exceedingly patient with her. Explaining clearly, and never becoming irritated with her mistakes, even if she made the same ones many times in a row.

The hardest part so far had been getting out of the driveway without stalling.

His hands were warm as they overlay hers on the gearshift, soft and in control.

Blood pounded in her ears at the touch, and he avoided her eyes whenever she looked attentively at him. Ever the diligent student.

His voice had been calm the whole time, never reminiscent of their strained childhood or their usual antagonistic relationship with her.

“Now you pop the clutch yeah that’s good.”

She was slowly picking it up, and if she was completely honest with herself she would admit that she might be dragging it out a little.

Being in the car, surrounded by his smell, his warmth, made her feel like they were in their own happy little world where they were just Betty and Jughead.

She took a turn around the block, then switched letting him demonstrate twice, and then finished off going around three times more.

He never made her feel unintelligent and his quiet demeanor never waivered.

After an hour and a half she pulled into the driveway once more.

She looked up at him expectantly, waiting for his evaluation.

“You did good Cooper, next time we will go out farther and work on shifting into higher gears.”

She nodded peering out of the window, picking at her thumb nail.

He had leaned over, checking her gauges and ensuring that all was well. Not that she would miss it if anything  _ was  _ wrong with her baby.

His breath skimmed over her cheek and she felt his thigh resting next to her, heating the right half of her body.

She nearly reeled back into the driver side window.

Other than on the bike he had never been this close to her, and she could smell him, the faint aroma of mint and hickory smoke.

His fingers ran over the leather of the driving wheel and she couldn’t help but wonder what they would feel like tracing the skin of her thigh in little circles.

Their noses nearly touched as he turned the keys in the ignition.

The silence rang in her ears, and only the sound of their breathing remained in the car.

Involuntarily her hand reached up, tracing a woven spike of his gray crown, bending it forward. Navy eyes flicked all over her face, gauging.

Leaning forward she ran a hand down the side of his face, and his fingers moved from the steering wheel to a exposed sliver of skin at her waist.

At the sight of his darkening eyes she closed the gap, pressing her lips to his harder than she meant to.At the resounding groan in the back of his throat she let a hand drag down into his hair, pushing off the beanie. Cupping her face he pulled her closer, causing her to lean off balance and nearly into his lap.

She had been kissed before, innocently, sweetly, even friendly, but never like this.

This was a raging fire, burning her body, searing her nerve endings. She wanted to eat him alive, consume him, right here in the bench seat of her car. She rewarded his enthusiasm by tracing her tongue on the seam of his parted lips, teasing him with the very tip.

And she nearly squealed at the light nibble that he replied with, dragging his hands up to her ribcage, just underneath the band of her bra.

She liked it,  _ Oh god she liked it, _ the fact that they burned together. They burned but it was not wild or unwieldy. 

No, he was the picture of control, never straying above the ribs or below the belt, other than her legs.

He acted like a gentleman, but there was nothing gentlemanly about his kiss. The light groans he drug out of her would have left her embarrassed if he had not given them to her in turn.

The only slip up he had was as she turned her body, pulling her leg up under her but. It seemed like he couldn’t resist as he let his hands roam to the small of her back,  and down just barely still on her hips. 

Pulling back he panted looking at her.

Nodding she pulled him closer, intertwining with him once more as he let his hands slid over the back of her jeans, lightly squeezing her ass.

He yanked her forward, into his lap as they continued, tangled and breathless together.

Sweat started to bead on her forehead and she saw the same was occurring on Jughead’s, pulling back she gave him a small grin.  

The one he answered with was that of a hellraiser, hair mussed, shirt rumpled, his jacket on the seat next to him.

They sat smiling stupidly at each other for a moment before, and falling into a fit of giggled at the film of steam on the window.

She opened the door appreciating the cold gust of air that blew through her now tangled hair.

He met her around the bumper, pushing his hands into his pockets. He had pulled jacket on.

And damn if it didn’t make her want to grip him by the shirt and pull him into the car seat once more.

Awkwardness hung in the air for a moment and she almost started panicking as he strode to his bike, kicking it on.

But his next words both relaxed her and filled her with an uncomfortable amount of excitement and anticipation.

“See you Betty,” he said dipping his head at her, “Same time tomorrow?”

Adrenaline trilled through her body, and she broke into a teeth baring smile.

“Sure Jughead.” 

She failed to say it casually.

They stared at one another for a moment longer, before he rolled out slowly.

Later, inside her house, leaning on the kitchen counter she smiled to herself and chewed on a cookie.

_ There is more to Jughead Jones than even she thought. _

_ \------------------------------------------------------------------ _

They continued their lessons for another two weeks into December, and she wasn’t in a hurry to let him go so easily after he deemed that she finally had shifting down. 

So instead she found other reasons to have him there. Her parents didn’t usually get home until around seven every night, so it gave both of them two to three hours every other day to spend together.

At first it was her who tried to keep him busy, ensuring that he would stay as long as possible. But soon as they crawled to Christmas and snow covered the ground she figured out that he too was trying to find ways to spend time with her.

It had started off as small chores,  _ Help me change the oil Jughead, I need someone to hand me tools. _

Or even,  _ I think that tire is looking a little low, mind taking a look with me? _

Each ‘chore’ would end with them twined together, leaning against the hood of the car or on her workbench.

At first she thought it might be a little one sided, but once he had very carefully asked her if she would give his ‘baby’ a tune up, they actually did end up in the backseat of her car.

It had been an exercise in trust for him, and not one that she had taken lightly.

She remembered the raised eyebrows of Archie and Veronica when she had told them later.

Archie had been flabbergasted

“He punched a guy at the Whyte Wyrm once for looking at his bike too long Betts, it’s a pretty big deal that he even let you touch it, much less pick it apart and put it together.”

It had filled her with warmth, even when he had hovered over her shoulder, breathing on her neck as she worked to see where a mysterious rattle he had been complaining about had originated.

With her hand in the side of the bike she told him the issue, trailing off as he pressed light kisses along her collarbone, up to her earlobe. She turned her head, tilting her neck to him giving him more skin to work with.

He only smiled and lightly nibbled her earlobe, sliding his hands up her legs and wrapping them around her stomach.

“It’s so hot when you do that.”

She smiled to herself, he had been saying stuff like that a lot lately. No longer hateful, and much more sexy than she was used to.

They had spent Christmas and New Year's apart, due to her going down to Virginia to visit her grandparents during the break. But they had texted the entire time, sweet nothings and ‘I miss yous’.

She had never taken him for a romantic, but after hearing Polly talk about Reggie, she felt like he was a true prince charming.

Although she hadn’t expected anything fancy for Christmas he had surprised her with a small poem, which she presumed was from his laptop that he was always vigorously typing on.

_ Blue eyes, tells no lies _

_ Sweet skin, pure as sin _

_ Smart as a whip, makes my heart skip _

_ Craving her near, wish you were here. _

_ -JJ _

It had been short and sweet, but it had been her favorite gift of the holiday. More than the moleskin journal Archie had gifted her, and the eyeshadow palette from Veronica.

When she had read it initially her brain turned back to the years they spent in utter disdain for one another. The situation had changed so greatly that she hardly believed it, although they weren’t officially dating, and they hadn’t told anyone other than Archie and Veronica she still felt like they were an official couple, one that wrote poetry for one another and cuddled in front of the fire as snow fell down.

A giggled escaped her lips while she lay on her bedspread scanning the small handwritten note. She had been remembering how angry she had been at Jughead when he had crashed her twelfth birthday party with Archie. It had been a sleepover in the backyard of the Cooper’s house, her and three other girls in a tent. They had ambushed them with water balloons, soaking the four of them and ruining a small portable DVD player that they were using to watch a Barbie movie.

She had written what she thought at the time was the meanest cruelest poem in the world in her sparkly pink diary.

_ Jughead Jones is a jerk _

_ I want to punch him in his smirk _

_ I’d like to spray him with a can of mace _

_ Just to wipe the grin off his face _

It had been silly at the time but it did make her feel better, and she eventually did forgive and forget about it after Archie had asked nicely.

Smiling she knew she would have to show it to Jughead sometime soon. They would both have a good laugh about it now.

Despite his devil may care attitude currently, Jughead had changed a lot over the past few weeks they had been together.  Although he hadn’t shared much with her about his family or his home life, or about the Serpents, he did allow her to see a family picture of his and his sister Jellybean. 

He talked about her more than he ever did before, and Betty knew it made him sad at times. She was also grateful that he was willing to share that part of himself with her. 

He was not someone that trusted easily and she knew it would take time to build it with him.

Even she had secrets that she didn’t want to spill after six weeks of pseudo dating.

Who wouldnt?

She had learned so much about him the past few weeks, some good , some bad.

But one of the first things she had learned and almost couldn't stand was that he had arguably the greatest self-control of any hormonal teenage boy she had ever met.

It was borderline Angelic. Sure he still pestered her, and they engaged in verbal combat, but she liked to think of it more as flirtation. They made out many times, almost everywhere in the garage, and even some places in the house.

But, never once in there make out sessions had he ever strayed from her waist, her neck, or her legs. It had frustrated her in a way she was unfamiliar with, wanting him to touch her, but not being sure if he had reasons for being so distant.

The one time he had let a hand stray up the side of her skirt, on the workbench counter, with his body between her legs, he had jumped back looking at her, almost guiltily.

She had tried to reassure him, saying it was fine, but he remained in control from that moment on. From what Betty had known about boys it defied all logic.

He was so _ gentlemanly. _ Kissing her passionately, even holding doors open for her whenever they went to Pop’s. At first she thought she was in the Twilight Zone, she had never seen him act like this with anyone  _ ever. _

It seemed that it had all been a preemptive strike, one which Betty found out the reasoning for the second week of January, after class had restarted for the first day.

Seeing all of the familiar faces, even Cheryl’s, made Betty feel giddy.

_ She had a dirty little secret. _

Her, Elizabeth Cooper, class representative, and straight A student had been secretly making out with Jughead Jones the Serpent gang member, the broody boy from the wrong side of the tracks.

It was nice having a secret Betty realized, having something that none of her peers other than a select few knew about.

She decided it was similar to what she imagined wearing sexy lingerie under a church dress felt like.

This feeling only lasted until lunch however, when a loud rumble blew into the parking lot, not twenty five yards from where her, Archie, Ronnie, and Kevin had sat down for lunch.

She recognized his jet black hair from afar, and the shiny leather that coated his arms. Murmurs spread throughout the courtyard and Betty knew it would only be a few moments before Weatherbee was outside shooting away the ‘riff raff’.

Archie ran up, meeting Jughead and doing the handshake/hug thing that all guys did with their friends.

Her heart flipped when Archie looked back at her, gesturing her over.

She quickly flitted past tables of students, including one seating Cheryl, Chuck, and Reggie all of whom had a smug and knowing look on their faces.

Her eyebrows crinkled at the sight of them, but she continued walking on. Feeling her neck and face turn red at the attention on her.

As she reached the vibrating bike, Archie gave her a grin and patted her lightly on the shoulder, heading back to the lunch crowd.

His navy eyes were playful.

A look she had become accustomed to.

“Hey Betts,” he smiled as he ignored the prying eyes of the Northside crowd, “Having a good lunch.”

Her mouth quirked into a smile.

“Alright so far, but some hoodlum just rode up and caused a whole ruckus, you know anything about that?”

Twirling a piece of her blond hair pulled into her ponytail she tilted her head at him.

He only smiled and took a step closer to her, giving only a hairbreadth of space between them. From any onlookers it would look like he was whispering in her ear, or running his nose on her neck.

She blushed, pulling back first.

“What is this about Juggie?”

His eyes scanned the crowd behind, holding on one place a moment longer than the rest.

Breathing in he pulled her back, his eyes slightly emptier than before. They darkened, and his voice took a harder edge.

“I heard there was a dance happening here in a few weeks.”

She nodded and looked at him in playful suspicion.

“Yes I didn’t think Jughead Jones would be caught dead at a lame high school formal,” she tugged on his sleeve playfully, “You do know that you can’t wear a gang affiliated suit to it right?”

He only quirked an eyebrow, “Who said I was going anywhere near that dance?” His voice was harsh.

_ Oh. _

She pulled away embarrassed, “I didn’t-, Oh yeah of course-.”

Turning her head away she clenched her fingers into her palms and nodded gently.

Fingers gripped her chin gently, pulling her face slowly back to him.

“Betts, sorry I was just being an asshole I didn’t mean that.” The gentleness in his tone made her look back up at him, with a loose smile.

“I’m really bad at this kind of stuff,” he started “and I don’t have much practice, but here goes.”

He swallowed deeply and took a deep breath. It was as unprepared out of kilter as she had ever seen him. And it made her feel better, like she was the one that had the power in the situation, instead of him, who always seemed to pull the strings.

His navy eyes bore into her blue-green ones as he spoke.

“Elizabeth Cooper with you attend the Riverdale High School Formal with me?”

She broke into a smile, longing to wrap her arms around his neck.

Instead she teased him, “Who said I was going to the dance?”

She wished she could have taken a picture of the look that came on his face. It would have sold for millions of dollars and been framed in a museum.

It only lasted a moment before he looked at her, smiling again.

“Really Betts. Playing coy?”

Smiling she nodded.

“What am I going to do with you?”

_ Oh, I can think of many things. _

He must have seen the darkness in her eyes, because he pulled away.

“We’ll sort out the details later, but first things first, you have to tell your mom.”

Real dread then pooled in her body.

That would be a conversation conducted very carefully, in an extremely controlled environment over the next week.

Paling she nodded.

“Don’t worry Cooper, you’ve told me multiple times that she doesn’t actually breathe fire like Cheryl does.”

At her apprehension he grinned and leaned forward, planting a kiss on her forehead.

She ran her fingers over where his lips touched as he drove away, before turning on her heel back to her friends. Eyes followed her as she strode back to her seat.

The entire courtyard had gone silent for the entire interaction. Not even a whisper had ghosted across the grass.

Despite her disdain for attention on herself  she couldn’t help the smirk that crossed her face.

She didn’t have time to worry about what they thought.

Not only did she have to tell her mother that not only was she going to have to let Betty attend a dance with a boy, but due to their previous arrangement she would also have to let Polly.

Plus, a dress wasn't going to shop for itself. Fortunately, she had something in mind, and she knew that it was going to have Jughead Jones crawling on his knees for her in two weeks time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed. I was extremely nervous about this chapter, and I hope it worked for you all.  
> Thanks for the support, the reviews, the kudos.  
> They all keep me going.
> 
> Until next time,  
> TAWOTWS


	7. I Hate That You're Always Right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry that this took so long. I just started back at school and I have been very busy. I will try and update soon.
> 
> Hopefully this will make up for it ;)

_ “Of all matches never was the like.” _

_ ― William Shakespeare, the Taming of the Shrew _

 

It was only a week after Jughead had asked her to the formal that Betty and Veronica rushed to the nearest dress store in a panic. Riverdale was not a large town, and as a consequence of this there was not a large selection of dresses or shops to pick from.

 

The pair of them had woken up as early as they could stand that saturday morning so they would beat the crowd. Bleary eyed Betty stumbled into the limo that Veronica had urged her mother to let them borrow, with Smithers driving of course. It seemed that Hermione Lodge’s financial situation was not dire enough to deny her daughter a ride in style both for the shopping trip and for the dance itself. 

 

Rubbing her eyes and pinching the sand out of the corners Betty sat in the leather backseat with her significantly more bright eyed and bushy tailed friend.

 

She had been up later the night before than she had ever been. When she had told her mother and father about her intention to attend the dance in passing as she went to bed it had not gone as smoothly as she had anticipated. An official family meeting had been called at nearly 10:30 at night. Not an ideal time, but Betty had made sure to mention it only after her mother had her ‘prescribed’ glass of wine for the evening. 

 

Her mother had been shocked to say the least stating that this was ‘something she had expected from Polly but not from her’, which had not gone over well with either of her daughters.

 

Polly had been overjoyed at the news, Reggie had hinted heavily about asking her for the past two weeks and she was all but bouncing in her chair hearing that Betty was planning to attend as well.

 

Alice’s face looked as if Betty had betrayed her. She had thought her rule was fool proof. Her sweet little Elizabeth would never intimately associate with anyone in the possession of a penis, and since Archie was firmly off the table she didn’t have anything to worry about at least until she left for college in a few years. 

 

It had been watertight. 

Or so she thought.

 

Except for the fact that her mother had not accounted for Jughead Jones. 

 

Jughead had been a complete angel throughout the whole process, which Betty had not initially expected. 

 

Frankly, she kind of wished he had stuck with his badass rebel bad-boy image and put up more of a fight. 

 

No, he had been the perfect potential escort. Attending the previous weekend’s family dinner. He had ditched the leather jacket and biker boots for a knit sweater and casual dockers (Something she had never thought she would be witness to).The beanie had stayed, which Betty appreciated but the entire situation had left her slack jawed throughout the entire dinner. 

 

Archie had even let Jughead spend the night beforehand so he wouldn't have to pull up on his motorcycle. He had shook her father’s hand, complimented her mother’s peach  cobbler and had answered politely and directly to any inquiries they had.

 

She rubbed her cheeks raw, remembering the grilling her mother had given him. About his schooling (Decent enough) , his hobbies (writing and photography) , his grades (good in english and journalism and well enough in other areas), and most surprisingly how his father was doing.

That was the only question that he drew back in hesitation, nearly dropping his fork.

 

Her narrowed eyes had surveyed him intently as he deliberated an answer.

 

“I- I didn’t know you knew him.”

 

She raised her chin, and let her index fingernail trace the rim of her half empty wine glass.

 

“Oh, FP, Hal, and I go way back, right Hal? Taught you everything you know about machines.”

Her father had nodded thoughtfully in reply. 

 

“Oh definitely he was a gear head, but he always loved football and hanging out with Fred Andrews more than being a grease monkey.”

 

Jughead had gone pale, and a slight sweat had dampened his forehead. Across from him Betty touched the tip of her foot to the side of his leg.

 

Reminding him that she was there for him. 

 

Attempting some damage control Betty piped up, “Speaking of being a grease monkey as you call it, I think I may have found the last few parts for the car…”

 

Changing the subject had been easy enough, and the duration of the dinner had gone smoothly

after that.

 

But in that moment she hated her mother.

Jughead wouldn't even talk to her about his father, it was a place he simply wouldn't go, and she had just casually brought it up like it had been nothing. 

 

Betty had felt terrible about it for the days following, despite Jughead's constant reassurance that he could handle any questions they threw his way. Especially if it meant he could take her to the formal.

 

He had gotten many kisses for that comment. 

 

That was how her and Veronica ended up where they were now. 

Archie and Jughead wouldn't be able to go tuxedo shopping until the girls had picked out their dresses, and they were already cutting it close. Thus, them waking up early and on a mission.

Betty knew Veronica would be done in a matter of hours. She knew what she wanted and they only had to find the store that had it. 

 

A number in deep purple, long and flowing. 

 

Her own dress was going to be the issue. Betty had no idea what she wanted, something sweet or sexy? Long or short? 

Color? She had no idea what went well with her hair or her skin. 

 

Plus, she had no idea what Jughead preferred. Although he was sweet with her, if not a little edgy he was also from a biker gang. What if he wanted something sexy? Something Va-Va-Voom. 

 

She didn't have the boobs for Va-Va-Voom.

Peering down the v-neck of her sweater she felt panic steadily rise within her.

 

She barely had the rack to pull of  ‘modest church girl’.

 

_ Jughead doesn’t care about that Betty, he likes you for more than your cup size. _

 

She knew this but she still wanted something to make his eyes pop out of his head, something that would make it impossible to keep his hands off of her.

 

_ Oh yes  _ she decided  _ something that will make it hard for him to keep his hands only on her waist and shoulders. Like they had been for the past few months. _

 

Veronica had called dibs on purple and all variations of it, and Betty knew that Polly had bought a dress two days before that was a dark pink color.

 

Red had crossed her mind, but with Cheryl Blossom in the picture it was hard for her to imagine wearing the color and not leaving with a stain on the front at the end of the night.

 

So no red.

 

Definitely not.

 

White was in her comfort zone usually but it seemed in this case much too formal….bridal even.

 

It wouldn't do for a formal dance. No she needed something else. Something sleek and sexy that would shock everyone, even herself.

 

She would only have to muster up the courage to leave the house in it. 

 

_ When she did eventually find the damn dress. _

 

The sound of a slamming door shook her out of her thoughts. Veronica had lightly hopped out of the car, leaving Betty sitting in it momentarily alone.

 

She shrugged out of her seat and glanced at the sign hanging precariously from the roof.

 

‘Danny’s Dress Barn’

 

It wasn't up to Veronica’s usual standards but she decided that it was the least sketchy and cheap looking dress shop in Riverdale.

 

A small bell rang as they stepped into the store. 

Racks of dresses bordered the walls, and circular carousels were packed closely together down the narrow walkway of the shop.

 

It was a bit overwhelming for Betty, but Veronica immediately darted between the wracks, skimming the dresses, checking sizes, and crinkling her nose at certain designs.

 

Betty had allowed herself to get lost amongst the sequins and fabric, pulling out a few possibilities. Simple floor length dresses that made an array of yellow, blue, and green in her arms.

 

She had no idea what Jughead would like, if he even had a preference in dress styles.

 

_ Probably not, he would just tell her that naked would be the best way to go. _

 

Smiling to herself she held up a peach number against her torso.

 

Veronica’s voice drifted over the metal racks.

 

“Hey B, what would your lover boy think of this?”

 

Looking over she laughed. It was a horrendous pink tutu dress, that looked like something straight out of a toddler beauty pageant.

 

She shook her head,

 

“It's a close one V, too bad Polly is already wearing the same pink.”

 

She pretended to look at it mournfully before placing it back on the rack.

 

They searched for what felt like an eternity, shopping was not exactly Betty’s favorite thing, especially with a mother as critical of appearances as her was.

 

She still is, but Alice Cooper no longer required that herself be present for all shopping trips after she deemed Betty responsible enough to shop without making herself out as a harlot.

 

On the back wall of the shop she spotted small delicate items. They were undergarments for the dresses. 

Panty hose, slips, garters, strapless bras, stick on bras, you name it they had it.

 

She stared at the layers of silk and lace, perhaps for too long because she felt Veronica step up behind her.

 

“Looking for something to impress your boy? Just heed my advice, no orange.”

Her eyes scanned Betty’s confused expression.

 

“It doesn’t look good on anyone, even me.” A faux shiver went down her spine and Betty cracked a smile and nodded.

 

“Okay no orange.” Playing with the hem of her shirt she scanned the rows. Something had caught her eye. A strapless, bra in black. It wasn’t lacy like nearly all the items around her, but it was charming. 

Well If underwear could be charming. 

 

Looking around to see Veronica sifting distractedly through a carousel of fuschia dresses, and when she was confident that her friend wouldn’t notice she plucked the item off the hanger.

A small black bow that sat between the cups was the only adornment other than the satin that lined the bottom and the straps. 

 

It was daring, sexy, and something that Betty hadn’t thought she would even be looking at in a million years. 

 

Still, it intrigued her. The thought of wearing this under her dress. Like she had a secret.

 

One that she hoped Jughead would be willing to get in on some point after the dance. Not that she was ready to hit a homerun just yet. But the recent months had peaked her curiosity. 

 

Normally the thought of taking things further would hike up her nerves, and make her weary, but with Jughead she was the one initiating. Sure she had been on a few dates before, innocent ones with guys that her mother would arrange a marriage to Betty in a heartbeat. 

 

The only thing she had ever gotten to before Juggie was hand holding, a few makeout sessions, and a hand up her shirt. 

 

Over her bra for crying out loud. Sure, she wasn’t desperately ready to lose her virginity, but she did want some sort of physical connection. 

 

However, none of the boys before had even held a candle to how much Jughead tempted her. 

He tempted the hell out of her. It was a superhuman feat for her to keep her fingers out of his hair for more than five minutes. She hadnt seen him without a shirt, but there had been times that he had stretched, or reached for something and his thin S t-shirts had ridden up and given her a lovely view of his lean lower stomach and the light trail of hair that led downward. 

 

It had not seemed proper to her each time, but the sight of him still made her mouth water and her limbs tighten.

 

So yes, sweet innocent Elizabeth Cooper wanted to get down and dirty with Jughead Jones. It was not world changing news. 

 

Turning over the hanger she saw that a slightly more risque pair of panties had been attached to the back. 

 

This time the Veronica’s voice behind her made her jerk in surprise.

 

“You don’t buy black lingerie unless you want someone to see it.” Her sly smile was knowing, and it made Betty roll her eyes.

 

“Is that such a bad thing?” She sighed.

 

Veronica only looked at her thoughtfully, her eyes boring into Betty’s.

 

“No, as long as you are sure of it. I’m not going to preach to you since you obviously have a handle on things, but I would always err on the side of caution B, sometimes even the most trustworthy person can hurt you.”

 

She nodded solemnly.

 

A smile flitted onto the raven haired girl's face, “But not to worry dear Elizabeth, because the best night of our lives, besides Prom, is about to happen and we still need to find you a dress.”

 

“Don’t you still need one V?”

 

At the question her dark eyebrow quirked and she reached to a nearby hook. On it was a hanger with a long dark purple dress. It had a sequined top, and was strapless. It was beautiful, classy, and not too glamorous for a formal. 

 

She smiled at her friend, “I love it V, absolutely perfect.”

 

Her hand only waved it away, “Thanks B, but we still have work to do, you need something simple, yet elegant, not too sparkly since this is only a formal, but something not boring.”

 

Betty only nodded and let Veronica take her hand and drag her once more around the store.

 

They had a lot of dresses left to look at. Which was great and all, but Betty was about 90% sure she would have to pee soon, and Veronica Lodge did not do shopping potty breaks.

At the stacks of dresses that Veronica began piling in her arms she made up her mind that she would have to hold it.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

The blue dress hung in her closet, shrouded in a black cover and shoved into the back. 

 

As far as she knew her mother still hadn't seen it, and if all went well she never would.

 

It would not have been Alice Cooper approved and Betty knew her mother had not glimpsed it because she had not been shipped off to a convent yet.

 

_ Yet. _

 

She loved the dress, Veronica had truly outdone herself. It was royal blue and had a small amount of sequence on the strapless top. There was a cutout on the back that went so low you could nearly see the little dimples above her rear.

 

Underneath the dress, on a smaller hanger was the set of black lingerie. Her face turned pink at the sight of it.

 

Shaking her head she trotted downstairs, Jughead had started eating Sunday morning breakfast with the four of them, and he was never late for food.

 

As she rounded the bannister of the stairs she hear a knock on the door. 

 

Throwing it open she saw him.

 

He was wearing dark jeans, his usual boots and a plain white T-Shirt. He stepped forward and and moved to give her a light kiss on the forehead, which she instead intercepted with her lips.

 

The smile he gave her made it feel like sunshine was swirling in her soul. The sweetness of it and the affection in his eyes drove her mad. She couldn't get over the fact that no matter how many times they kissed or touched or even spoke the feeling did not go away, it wouldn't even fade.

 

It was both lovely and terrifying at the same time and if she could have bottled the feeling up she would have drank it everyday for the rest of her life.

 

She walked him to the table and he sat down in the spot that was now designated to him by the Coopers, a fact that made both he and Betty smile.

 

She peered at him from across the table, and she saw that he look worn out. Dark circles had formed under his eyes like he hadn't had a decent night’s sleep in a while. As far as she knew he wasn't playing much of a part in any Serpent nighttime activities and she talked to him nearly every night before bed. 

 

What could be keeping him awake so late?

 

She hated to ask about Serpent business, not because he wasn't forthcoming with information, but because frankly some of it scared her.

She knew that the bulk of their crimes were petty, and for some it would be a stretch to call them crimes at all. 

 

But, the midnight meetings, the shady bars, and the close eyes of the cops made her nervous.

 

He noticed her staring and a crooked smile came over his face. Her body warmed at it, and she glanced down at his long fingers drumming the table. He followed her eyes and his smile widened as he noticed where she began to look. 

 

His eyebrow quirked.

 

_ Like what you see? _

 

She could hear Polly and her parents having a debate about something school related in the background.

 

Them being distracted she decided to play along, pushing her sandal clad foot forward until it grazed the side of his leather shoe.

 

His eyes widened slightly and he nearly choked on his pancake.

 

_ Why yes I do. _

 

Her eyelashes flutter at him and a playful smile leapt to her face.

 

Glancing at her sister and parents he gave her a warning look.

 

Normally she would've stopped, joined in the conversation the rest of her family was having, but today she couldn't make herself leave him alone.

 

It was game on.

 

She slipped off the sandal, wincing when it made a light  _ clop  _ on the hardwood floor. Her toes ran to the side of his ankle once again. She held eye contact with him, but this time her eyes had mischief. Her foot slowly rose up the inside of his denim clad leg, to the calf, to the knee, to the thigh. Each inch she saw him stiffen a little bit more. He hadn't taken a bite, instead one hand gripped the table and the other white knuckled the fork he was holding. 

 

His eyes had darkened and her eyes flicked to and from the fork.

 

_ Go ahead, eat. We don't want them to think anything is amiss. _

 

He let out a huff and she knew if they had been alone it would have been closer to a growl.

 

He stabbed a piece of pancake harder than necessary and chewed distractedly. 

 

Satisfied that he wouldn't blow their cover she let her foot push upward. 

 

The seam of his front pocket tickled the bottom of her toes. Smiling she began to pull inward to her real goal.

 

Looking up she saw that his face was flushed and that his eyes had fluttered shut, grinning she gave him a slight nudge.

 

Quick as lighting the hand that had been gripping the table was on her ankle. In the commotion he knocked the other silverware onto the floor.

  
  


As it clattered loudly her parents turned their attention to the two of them. He emerged picked up the utensils red faced and flustered, while Betty face the three of them the most Angelic look she could muster.

 

He only gave her a small glare and stabbed his food once more before asking her father a question about his project at work.

 

Betty only smiled to herself and took a long sip of orange juice.

 

After the dishes were done and Alice had ensured that Betty’s room was pristine her and Jughead sat on her bed, with the door to her room wide open.

 

“So Betts, I was thinking I know that Veronica and Arch are going to the formal in Veronica’s fancy limo, but I was wondering if you would be willing to take your car.” His face had taken a puppy like quality. 

 

The question had thrown her off. The plan had always been for the four of them to ride together and leave together. Safety in numbers and all that. 

 

At her quizzical look he began to explain.

 

“ I just thought that if we wanted to stay later or leave early it would be easier in a separate cars.”

 

It was an odd request not so odd that she said no, but odd enough that something lodged into her brain for the weeks to come.

 

At her agreement he smiled and gave her a hard kiss on the lips.

 

It wasn't until she saw his taillight s as he pulled away from her house that she thought about how the smile didn't really meet his eyes.

\------------------

The next week of school went by in a blur. She hardly saw Jughead for most of it. 

 

He had been busier than usual, and with what she did not know.

The few times she had seen him the dark circles had been more pronounced and his beanie even more lopsided than usual.

 

She didn't want to admit it but something felt strange. Almost like Jughead was hiding something from her.

 

The thought made her giggle,

 

_ Jughead? Hiding something from me? _

 

He was one of those people who wasn't ashamed of anything. He would keep a secret to the grave and there were things he wasn't proud of, but he would never hide anything from her and definitely not from Archie.  Nothing that was important.

 

No, she shook her head. It couldn't be anything like that. I was likely something stressing him out with his dad or the serpents. Nothing out of the usual.

 

Paranoid Betty was not an aspect of herself that she liked to give a lot of fuel, much like anxiety Betty and insecure Betty, they were best left alone.

 

By the time Friday rolled around she had hardly seen Jughead for more than a few hours. Of course most of it was due to her own schedule, but she still missed him. The thought of Saturday set her body afire with excitement and nerves. 

 

She and Veronica had been prepping for the dance all week, getting their toes done after practice Friday and making sure everything was in order for the night of the dance.

 

As far as the two of them knew Archie and Jughead had picked up theirs tuxedos the previous Tuesday and not thought about it since.

 

_ Boys. _

 

It was the last week of January and the weather was certainly reflecting it.

 

Waking up Saturday morning it was brisk and chilly, but Veronica had insisted that the two of them needed a good breakfast if they were going to last the whole day and night.

 

Betty was excited for Veronica, her and Archie had become very close and affectionate, and she was truly happy for them. 

 

Being with Jughead made her realize that whatever she thought she felt for Archie was not what she had always wanted. It was a built up fantasy in her head, one that she could now see was naive and incompatible with reality.

 

After grabbing a hearty, but quick breakfast thetwo of them spent most of the day getting ready. It was a novelty for Betty. She usually never spent more than forty-five minutes to an hour getting ready for anything. But Veronica viewed the whole thing as a process, one that should be taken slowly and enjoyed. 

 

“You should never miss out on a moment to pamper yourself B, life it too short to do anything halfway.”

 

And Betty had to admit she was right. Hey had gotten facials and massages, Betty had never felt more at ease. 

 

But the thought of the night to come left her stomach in knots. 

 

By the time the evening rolled around she was nearly a wreck.

 

She sat in her dress, palms sweating. Her hands reached up to touch her face, her makeup, and her hair once more only to be slapped away by Veronica's quick hand.

 

Polly had left earlier, Reggie had picked her up in his dad’s black corvette. Betty knew by the sound of the engine, and although she loved her sister she didn't go down stairs for the photo shoot or her sister departure.

 

There was a firm knock on the door that sent Betty to her high heeled feet. Her royal blue dress brushed her legs as she walked carefully to the door. She turned around to grab her wrap, nearly forgetting it as she set toward the stairs.

 

She breathed a sigh of relief at the red head and relaxed visibly until she caught the sight of dark black hair behind him.

 

Jughead Jones stood in front of her, dress in a debonair tuxedo, well groomed, handsome as the devil, and with his head completely bare. His tie was the same blue as her dress, the dress which had made things tense with her mother for the past few nights.

 

His bare black hair was shiny and it took willpower for Betty not to reach her fingers out and touch it.

 

They smiled at each other and he held out his arm, the picture of class and breeding.

 

She took it and smiled. 

 

The four of them took what seemed like thousands of pictures, Mr.Andrews placed his trust in Alice and Hermione to take enough pictures for all of them. It was not a job either of them had taken lightly.

 

When they finished Veronica and Archie slid into her fancy limo and Betty and Jughead waved them off, promising to be right behind them.

 

Betty thanked her mother and father and even Mrs.Lodge and the pair of them made their way out. 

 

A firm hand gripped her arm, swinging her backward. she had been holding onto the crook of Jughead's elbow causing him to hold up as well.

 

It was her mother, she hadn't said much to her for the past few days, but something in her now seemed softened.

 

“You look Beautiful Elizabeth, have a good time tonight honey.”

 

A tear threaten to come into Betty’s eye as she nodded.

 

“Thanks mom.”

 

Then she shooed them away as they made their way to Betty's freshly polished car in the garage.

 

At the sight of her baby Betty grinned. He looked back at her and took her hand smiling brightly.

 

“I know I said dances weren't my thing, but I think going with someone as gorgeous as you may have made me change my mind about it.”

 

She flushed and a ducked her head.

 

“Thanks Juggie.” She murmured and planted a kiss on his lips. As she got ready to pull away a hand came up her neck holding her close as he slid his tongue along the entrance of her lips. A low groan emitted from her throat before he released her.

 

She looked at him, sure that her lips were swollen and her eyes dark.

 

She peered into the rear view mirror and saw that some of her hair was astray. 

 

The look on his face told her everything.

 

_ This was payback for what happened at breakfast. _

 

Fair enough. She grinned evilly back.

 

_ The night is still young. _

 

He only rolled his eyes and walked around to the passenger side to open the door and help her in.

 

As he shut the door and crawled in she only heard the revv of the engine and the pounding of her heart in her ears.

 

_ This was going to be an interesting night. _

\---------------------

Music pulsed in the air, and the electricity made the hairs on Betty’s arms stand up. A cool breeze kissed the exposed skin of her neck and lower back. And a shiver wracked her body before Jughead placed a comforting hand on the small of her back. 

 

He had offered her his jacket many times in the car and on the way up to the entrance to the gym, but she was too addicted to the lingering looks he kept giving her as his eyes roamed her body in this dress to cover it up. 

 

She liked the feeling that it was _ her  _ he couldn't keep his eyes off of. Or his hands for that matter. 

They couldn't seem to stay off of her, in the car, at the ticket door, and even as they walked into the pulsing room. They never left her, and with their constant presence came a feeling of relaxation and comfort.

 

While he was with her there was nothing for her to worry about, not Archie and Veronica, not Cheryl Blossom, and definitely not her mother. She didn’t just like being with him in the literal sense, she liked how he had been making her feel ever since they decided to put aside their years of hatred and misunderstanding.

 

She felt his breath tickle her ear.

 

“Can you believe I am in here with the most gorgeous girl in the room?”

 

She laughed and smacked him on the stomach. It had been cheesy, but it did well to relax her further. Tonight was just about her and Jughead.

 

Well at least it would be after the two of them hung out with Archie, Veronica, and Kevin or acceptable amount of time. The latter of which she was really wanting to catch up with. He had come with a Serpent buddy of Jughead’s. They had been introduced shortly after she and Juggie had really started to hit it off and it had been hard to find time when neither of them were busy or Kevin’s face wasn't attached to Joaquin’s.

 

Not that Betty was bitter about it, she understood. 

She understood on a personal level.

 

She spotted Archie’s ginger hair and waved him and Veronica over. They looked good together, and as they walked up Betty searched deep inside herself for a modicum of jealousy or displeasure at the sight of them.

 

To her delight, there was not a hint of any bitterness. 

 

The four of them took the dance floor. 

 

Not even Cheryl Blossom had anything to say to Betty.

 

Betty surveyed the crowd, and she hardly saw anybody from the football team other than Archie and Moose. Polly and Reggie had been off near the bleachers since she had walked in. She could tell by Polly’s increasingly annoyed expression that the night was not going as well as she had anticipated.

 

She even spotted Jason Blossom who did not seem to be having a good time. Sitting on the sidelines, not even cracking a smile as he and Cheryls shared one of the creepiest slow dances she had ever seen. 

 

Although Archie and Jughead were not great dancers what they lacked in talent they made up for in enthusiasm. Being silly together, jumping and hollering during the old school songs the DJ played. Betty didn't have to wonder how the two of them had become best friends.

 

Right as the crowd was at its largest and the music hit its peak, a slow song rolled around.

 

She felt a hand grip her waist, and she was pulled lightly to the center of the floor.

 

“That’s one way to ask a girl to dance Juggie.” She beamed at him.

 

But, he wasn't looking at her. No his eyes were elsewhere, and whatever it was he was looking at it seemed to be troubling him. She searched for the source but could not locate it.

 

“Juggie? Hey Jug?” She almost started snapping her fingers in his face before he jerked back to her.

 

She looked at him quizzically but he only shook his head.

 

“Sorry I just spaced out.” She nodded and touched his cheek with the palm of her hand as he pulled her closer. Laying her head on his shoulder they swayed together, and in that moment Betty was sure she didn't want to be anywhere else, ever.

 

She didn't want it to end, but she had other plans in mind.

 

Looking up her face was determined. 

“Let’s get out of here.”

 

The shock that registered on his face made her smile. But he still let her take his hand and lead her off the dance floor. 

 

Archie hugged the both of them goodbye and Veronica gave her a look that could have made a nun blush. 

 

She didn't let it shake her, because for once Betty Cooper knew exactly what she wanted, and she was not going to be shy about it.

\------------------------------------------------------

“I feel like the most stereotypical teenager ever.” Jughead groaned as they pulled into an old rest area near Sweetwater river. It was an old hangout spot, and it was far enough away from any other frequented areas that Betty knew the two of them wouldn't be bothered. 

 

Besides, nobody would recognize that this car was hers. Still, even with all the forethought she had put into this, she had to agree with him. 

 

Smiling she pulled him in for a kiss, the warm leather of her seat was soft against her palms. 

She had ditched her pinchy shoes in the backseat as soon as they had made it out of the parking lot.

 

She had drawn figures with her toes into the carpet floormat during the trip up there, talking to Jughead and taking calming breaths. 

 

Pulling back he looked her directly in the eye.

 

“Your sure about this Betts?”

 

This was the first and only time he had asked, and she appreciated it even though she had been the one to suggest this. 

 

His hair had fallen into his face, and he was panting. Sweat had started to bead on his forehead and Betty knew that they would need to crack a window.

 

She pulled her palms up to his face, her fingers on his neck.  

 

Looking him in the eye she nodded. 

 

“Ill tell you when I need to stop.”

 

He bobbed his head solemnly, and apparently took that phrase as a green light because he started in on her mouth in a fervor that she had never thought was possible.

 

He traced his tongue on the seam of her lips, teasing and probing. She opened in reply which invited him to do even more. Nibbling on her bottom lip she felt a flood of heat.

 

She gripped his hair, firmly, but as far as she could tell not painfully. A hand reached behind her to unclasp the halter of her dress. Peeling it off she hiked the bottom of her dress up to her lower thigh, allowing for more movement of her legs. 

 

He gave her a wicked look, surveying the newly exposed skin of her chest.

 

She had an even bigger surprise.

 

Pushing him onto his back along the leather bench seat she straddled him before pulling the top of her dress down to her belly button. At the sight of her black bralette his lips parted and his eyed threatened to roll back. 

 

Smiling slightly she leaned forward as his hands trailed from her face to her shoulders, down her back to the curve of her ass, gripping and squeezing rhythmically.

 

His breath caressed her face as she ran her tongue over his bottom lip once again, trailing her hands down his chest and to his lower stomach.

The stomach that had been taunting her for months.

 

She untucked his shirt, clawing at the fabric, impatiently. The smirk and cocky twitch of his eyebrow only made her pull harder as need filled her. 

 

In retaliation she shifted her body forward, and what once was sitting on the top of his legs had moved to far more dangerous territory. 

 

Carefully she unbuttoned his shirt, flinging it off of him as soon as he could pull his hands out of the sleeves. 

 

They sat there heaving and starting at each other for a moment, taking each other in. She couldn't help but admire the softness of his skin and the lightly toned panes of his chest and stomach. He was doing the same to her, his fingers tickling her stomach tracing the skin, slowly making their way to the band of her new bra. 

A haze had entered her mind, one where the only thing that mattered was the two of them, in this moment, together. 

 

Laughing lightly she ran her nails down the light trail of hair that led to his zipper. Muscles clenching he smiled, and reached to her back pushing the clasp the garment.

 

And just like that the heat was back. 

 

She shooed his hand away and pulled the dress completely over her head, freeing herself and exposing the bottom half of herself to him. 

 

It had taken a pep talk from Veronica to get herself into these panties, but judging by the black look in Jughead’s eyes it had been worth it.

 

“Holy fucking shit Betts, you are going to kill me,” he groaned.

 

She only smiled shyly and began working on his belt buckle. But hands reached forward and slapped her hands away. 

 

She frowned at him, but he only shook his head.

 

“Let me take care of you baby.” 

 

Hesitantly she nodded.

 

An unidentifiable look etched into his face, but he nodded almost imperceptibly.

 

Then he jolted forward, flipping them so that she was on her back and he hovered over her. 

 

Reaching behind herself she blushed and unclasped the bra, before letting it fall off of her shoulders.

 

His hands trailed up her hips, warming her rib cage before eventually covering her peaked breasts. At the tweak of her nipple she moaned and arched into his pelvis.

 

A groan was the answer. Then another as she lightly skimmed her fingernails along his stomach.

 

She kissed him as he continued to massage her, occasionally pulling lightly on her nipples.

It was unlike anything she had ever felt.

 

God she could have eaten him alive right there, no hesitation. 

 

He seems to return the sentiment as she reached his belt, fiddling with the buckle. 

 

But as she was preparing to unclasp the button on his slacks a hand firmly gripped her wrist, halting her.

 

His face had gone grim and a thin layer of sweat coated his peaked color.

 

“Stop Betts.”

 

She withdrew her hands immediately, hurt.

 

“I’m sorry Jug,” it felt like she had been thrown into a frozen lake, “I- I don't know what came over me I thought-.”

 

She couldn't push back feelings of rejection and confusion.

 

He gripped he hands and kissed them lightly, “God no Betts it's not like that, I just don't want it to go any further in this car, you deserve more than that.”

 

He avoided her eyes, but his words calmed her.

 

_ God she hated that he was right. _

 

Her body was practically singing  _ yes yes yes, _ but the logical side of her said  _ not yet not yet not yet. _

 

_ Damn it. _

 

Still she appreciated his sweetness, and planted a deep kiss on his lips before crawling off of him and pulling up her dress in a flurry.

 

He did the same, reaching under the seat to grab an article of clothing, and straightening himself up as well. 

 

His lips were swollen just as she was sure hers were. And his hair was disheveled in a way that made her want to peel off her dress again. She grinned at him, reaching over to take his hand.

 

The grin fell away, however as soon as she looked at the clock in the dash.

 

_ “We've been here for two hours?”  _ She yelped as he fumbled around for the keys. 

 

Well it  _ had  _ taken them a good 30 minutes to get her.

 

But now they only had ten minutes until curfew.

 

Jughead had never driven so quickly, and Betty couldn't help but laugh the entire way home.

 

As they sped down the road he turned and smirked at her, setting her skin afire. God she loved how he could do that to her.

 

_ Loved it. _

 

It felt like breathing, being in the car with him racing down the highway, free and uninhibited. Like it was always supposed to be this way. 

 

Laughing she removed any remaining pins in her hair and cranked down her window, elbowing Jughead so he would do the same. 

 

The wind kissed her face as she leaned out and let the wind flow around her fingers.

 

Her cheeks hurt as she crawled out of the car and watched Jughead crawl into Archie's truck to ride home.

 

This,  _ this  _ was perfect.

 

It was only when she realized realized something was missing that her smile faded to an expression of pure horror.

 

She searched her car, her room, even the back of her dress and under her bed.

 

But it was certain, her bra was missing.

 

 

 

Dance song: Bette Davis Eyes by Rogue Wave

(I know it was in the show, but I just love this song too much to change it, It is just so perfect for the two of them.)


	8. I Hate It When You Lie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness you guys I am so sorry this has taken me so long to write! But the good news is that there are only THREE more chapters after this one. I am going to try and have this all finished and wrapped up by early December. Thank You to all of you who have stuck with me even when it feels like I may never update again! Never fear, school has just been kicking my butt. I am so excited for you all to read this chapter, it is a little bit shorter than by others, but it a very important one. Hope you guys enjoy and please let me know what you think :)  
> \- TAWOTW

_"_ _Hell is empty and all the devils are here."_

 

  * __William Shakespeare__



 

****

The next morning she was prodded awake, violently by a her wide eyed sister.

****

Polly had taken residence at the end of her bed, completely dressed and ready for Sunday breakfast.

****

Betty shot up, resting her elbows on her legs and rubbed her eyes. Glancing at her clock she saw that it was seven in the morning. The Coopers were early risers for everything, but Sunday breakfast was not until at least nine o'clock.

****

Looking around her room she saw that Polly had shut the door.

Her pink fingernails tugged at a string on Betty's duvet as she spoke.

****

"Sorry I woke you up, but I wanted to talk to you before mom and dad woke up."

Betty only mumbled and nodded haphazardly.

****

She let Polly do the talking.

"So I had fun with Reggie last night, he was a perfect gentleman, I think that whole situation at Cheryl's party was just a one-off, maybe due to having too much to drink. Or maybe because Jason wouldn't leave me alone for the whole night. Either way I think he is going to ask me to prom, which is fine and all, but I don't know what to do about a dress and-"

****

Betty held up a lazy hand prompting Polly's mouth to snap shut.

****

"Oh sorry, I forgot how was your night with Jughead?"

****

Memories slammed into her, a touch on the neck, a kiss on her shoulder. Heat flooded her body, down her chest, and past her stomach. Bashfully she pulled that duvet over her head.

****

Polly sounded shocked, "That good?"

Betty could hear the smile in her voice.

****

Betty only gave her the smallest of nods from under the thick blanket.

****

She emerged and they smiled at eachother for a moment before Polly's face turned serious. "You were safe right? Because if you weren't I can drive us to the store." Betty's face only deepened in color, but she shook her head. "No we didn't get that far, I wanted to- I mean _we_ wanted to, but it wasn't the right time.'

****

Her sister sighed in relief, 'Good, just be safe when you are ready, you don't want to have any scares..." she trailed off.

****

It took all of Betty's willpower not to grab Polly's hands and force her to tell her if that was what happened with her and Jason, if that was why the entire foundation of their relationship crumbled to dust. She looked into Polly's eyes, the mirror of her own and opened her mouth.

****

Her sister cut her off, "Also I didn't know that Jughead and Reggie were such good friends." She looks at Betty inquiringly.

****

She feels her body go still from toes to the ends of her hair as he voice drops.

"They're _not_ , they hate each other." Polly cocked her head.

****

"Well they sure did talk a bunch last night, I practically had to drag Reggie to the dance floor a few times, but it looked pretty serious it seemed like they were talking about something important."

****

For this Betty had no answer.

****

_It had to be some sort of casual conversation, nothing that should alarm her._

_But she couldn't keep ignoring a gnawing in her heart, a feeling of poison in her mind._

****

_There could be many reasons that Jughead would talk so urgently to Reggie, but none of them were on the good end of the spectrum._

****

In fact the more she thought about it the more sick she began to feel. Her bra was missing and she was fairly sure of what happened to it. After all the item had been attached to her at least until the very end of the night. She wracked her brain for the details of the night. Her memory was clear until they rendezvous in her car, at that point her brain began to feel fuzzy, reminiscing on their bodies touching, being intertwined on her bench seat.

****

It had been one of the best nights of her life, dancing with Jughead, the two of them twirling on the dance floor making silly faces and ending up locked together, her head on his chest and his hands clinging tightly to her waist.

****

Being with Jughead was something she had never thought would be so exciting. Her body thrummed in his presence, and her hands itched to run over him when they were alone.

****

She could say she had fallen for him, that she was in _love._

****

Her body and mind relaxed at that and a stupid grin was slapped onto her face.

****

Betty Cooper in love with Jughead Jones. It was the perfect teenage angst novel. Two lovers, hating each other at first, then later falling for each other, only to be torn apart by their opposing social standing. They would say 'what the hell' to the naysayers and ride off on his motorcycle into the sunset.

****

Of course that was fantasy, and this was real life, Betty knew that. And in real life things were not always neat and tidy. Her life wasn't going to be wrapped up into a bow, but she was doing her damndest to make sure it at least had some of that shiny wrapping paper around it.

****

She lay in bed for only a little while longer after Polly trotted downstairs. Still not quite shaking off the uneasy feeling in her stomach.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

****

Classes had been quiet all day, the hum of the previous week in preparation for the dance had worn off and school was back to being a place of homework and teenage drama. It wouldn't perk up again until the Bulldogs Basketball team scored a big win or when Prom was just around the corner. Betty had begun counting down the days until summer. Tomorrow would be the first day of the short month of February, then she would only have to wait until the first week of May to have her prom night with Jughead.

****

From then on it would be days at the pool, excruciatingly long shopping trips with her raven-haired companion, and drive-in nights holding hands with Jughead. It was an endless blur of the two of them kissing each other sweetly and giggling in a booth at Pop's.

****

But something dampened these visions. Something lurked in the corner, at the edge of her sight. Something that she couldn't put her finger on, it made her brain foggy and her fingers unconsciously curl into her palms.

****

Jughead had been so perfect for her, other than the initial rockiness. She'd give anything to just be able to let it all go, but something about his _perfection_ bothered her, like how he knew what books and songs she loved.

It had been so _easy._

****

She knew he was an intelligent person and was well read, despite the deteriorating curriculum at Southside High, but the odds of him loving A Wrinkle in Time as much as she seemed so ridiculous. At the time she had swooned, but now she felt like there was something that just didn't add up.

****

It put her in a mood for the rest of the day, even at lunch with her talkative companions she remained lost in thought, contemplative. Normally her friends would have nudged her or snapped her out of it, but Kevin was currently in a janitor's closet with a water polo player, and Veronica and Archie were so stupidly in love that Betty was sure that they may not have realized she had even sat down. Not that she was upset, she understood the all consuming feelings of a new relationship all too well.

****

Two hours later she sat in history class distracted and aloof. Her fingers threatened to curl up into her palms so she gripped her wooden desk. Taking in three deep breathes she loosened them and placed them flat on her lap. Her phone had been buzzing since lunch, the gang had planned a dinner that evening at Pop's in celebration of the end of football season. Everyone was going to be there, packing the booths and drinking their milkshakes until they were about to be sick.

****

Jughead made plans to meet her there, his explanation was vague, but when it came to the Serpents Betty figured that if it was important he would tell her. She had come to trust him that much.

****

Strangely his interactions with the Serpents didn't bother her as much as she had originally thought. They were his family, and it was hard not to see why. Once she had snuck past their rough exteriors she too could see how loyal and kind they were, not only to Jughead, but to her as well.

****

They still didn't care for the Northsiders, but it seemed that at least Betty was a rare exception. It had warmed her heart, and thinking about it still made her smile. Especially when Jughead would mention that Tall-Boy or Sweet Pea had asked about how she was doing.

****

His interactions with Reggie, as Polly had described just didn't fit into the narrative of the Southside and Northside relationships. Under Jughead the younger Serpents didn't deal drugs, not hard ones, at least as far as she knew. Him getting into it with Reggie just didn't add up. The Mantle's were an extremely wealthy family, and Betty knew that if that jackass wanted drugs he would do it with someone from upstate with a lot more options and a lot better quality.

****

But anytime that she brought it up with Jughead he brushed it off, calling it a rivalry, or saying that Reggie just didn't know how to quit while he was ahead. That she understood, but the tightness of his voice as he spoke alarmed her. She didn't mind being protected for her own safety, but she _hated_ being lied to. So when for even the briefest of moments when she suspected that he was not telling her the truth, her brain simply wouldn't shut off.

****

Betty Cooper was not good at letting things go.

****

The bell rings, and she stops by her locker to gather the books for her next class. They had an English report due that day and in her distraction she was struggling to remember if she had grabbed her copy off of the printer.

****

Opening her backpack, she dumped out the contents. It had to be there somewhere. After she dug around for a few minutes she looked up and noticed that everyone else had cleared out the halls and there was only the echo of classroom doors closing. Not a sound was made as she frantically tore through her binders and notebooks in search of the damn thing.

****

A door slamming sent her jumping, with a hand pressed against her chest she turned her body and let her face fall into a light frown. A boy stood at the doorway of the classroom next to her locker, one that remained empty for the afternoon.

****

_Why did it seem like he was hiding in there, waiting on me?_

****

In front of her stood someone she had never thought she would speak to again. But the look on his face spoke volumes. In his hands was a stack of papers that she instantly recognized as her missing essay.

****

Puzzled she follows him as he turns onto his heel into the room, the blinds have been drawn and the only source of light are two lamps set in opposite corners. She stiffens as he speaks.

****

"I need to tell you something, and I need you to sit down before I tell you."

****

His eyes drilled into hers, as she takes a few tentative steps toward a small chair that he has set across from him.

****

He sits on the lab table and gestures gently for her to sit.

****

Her body has gone cold and her limbs completely numb. She knew this was not going to be a fun meeting.

****

"Sure Jason, what is it?"

****

The look on his face said it all, the pity in his eyes. He was about to tell her something that would rock her world.

****

It was the pity in his eyes that confused her, but she thought of the last times she had seen him, on the fringes of the crowd. Around Reggie and Polly, always observing. Watching her as well, with Jughead. The four of them, connected for some reason.

****

And it clicked.

****

She was so stupid.  


So. _Fucking._ Stupid.

****

A cruel laugh bubbles out of her throat.

****

_It all makes sense now._


	9. I hate it When You Make Me Laugh, Even Worse When You Make Me Cry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello loves, thanks for reading and reviewing and giving kudos. I don't know what I would do without all of you. You truly keep me going and I cannot thank you enough.  
> I would also like to mention that at some point I will be going back through the chapters, cleaning up, editing, and re-checking for mistakes. Just as soon as I have a life again :)  
> Until then please enjoy another chapter and as always let me know what you think. 
> 
> Thank and lots of love,
> 
> TAWOTWS

_ “I burn. I pine. I perish.” _

 

_ -William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew” _

 

What she couldn’t put together, Jason did the best he could to fill in the blanks. 

 

He had been good,  _ so  _ good. Fooling her, making a deal with Reggie for what? Petty Cash? Bragging rights? Street Cred?

 

Her mind raged against the idea in the beginning but as they rode silently to her house she became more and more sure that if she peeled back the skin of Forsythe Pendleton Jones the III there would only be snake scales and ice cold blood. 

 

She had given part of herself to him.  

It made her sick, that he had known all of the right things to say. Just how to make her care for him. 

 

She sat stoically in the passenger seat of Jason's ridiculously beautiful car. If she wasn't having an emotional crisis she was sure that she would have appreciated it much more than she was at the moment. 

 

Jason didn’t press her for conversation, not when she yelled at him in the empty classroom, or when she demanded that he drive her home immediately, never mind her cheerleading practice and her long forgotten essay. 

 

She had only asked brief, clipped questions about what he had known. 

 

“Tell me, tell me right now.” Her voice had cracked as she clenched the sides of her chair. Her body had gone, cold. 

 

Numb. 

 

Swallowing she looked at him, pleading. He only spoke quietly. 

 

“From what I was able to figure out it all started in October….”

 

She stared at the wall behind him as he spoke. 

 

Reggie had been a loudmouth, starting late November you would have been hard pressed to find a guy in the locker room who didn't know about the deal he had made with Jughead Jones to get into Polly Cooper’s pants.

 

Of course there were certain people who simply couldn’t be on the inside, Jason for one, and Archie by extension. It was clever, Betty had to admit, keeping it so out there, but so hush hush at the same time. So that everyone knew, but nobody would tell. Quite the feat for someone with the intelligence level of Reggie Mantle. 

 

“How did you find out then?” She kept her voice level, still not looking directly at him. 

 

“I didn’t even suspect anything until my party, well Cheryl’s party.” He inhaled, “I don’t trust Reggie at the best of times, but when it came to Polly it was personal…”

 

She smiled grimly, “Still holding a candle? Is that why you told me?” Standing she crossed her arms. “Did you only tell me so you could win Polly back?”

 

His expression turned somber, and clouded with what Betty immediately identified as guilt. She turned on her heel to leave, but felt a firm, but gentle grip on her arm. 

 

“Betty please, no that’s not the reason.” 

She raised an eyebrow, feeling moisture begin to pool in the corner of her eyes. 

 

He backtracked, “I- Well yeah that was part of it but I swear I didn’t but it all together until the dance. I hadn’t been able to piece it all together, you, Jughead, Polly, Reggie… I just couldn’t make it fit until I heard Jughead and Reggie arguing at the dance.”

 

She nodded for him to continue.

 

“I couldn’t quite make it all out but it sounded like Jughead wanted out of the deal, whatever it was, and Reggie was not taking it well. Now I realize why, Polly was his goal, his endgame. He didn’t care who got hurt in the process.”

 

The thought of the “deal” made Betty’s mouth dry. But why had Reggie picked the person everyone knew she hated the most to be the one to deceive her?

 

_ Because he is a snake, and snakes will always find a way to adapt and survive.  _

 

The thought squirmed in her mind like black tar, slowly covering all of the good memories of herself with him. Tainted. Destroyed.

 

A light buzz sounded from her backpack and she looked to see Kevin's name on the caller ID.

Instead of answering it she only stared at the blank screen. A revelation brewing in her mind.

 

Her life was on that phone. Her favorite songs. Movies she loved. Text messages to Veronica and Archie.

 

It had gone missing and she wanted to slap herself. 

 

_ Of course.  _

 

Jughead had looked through her phone, picked apart her life. Finding her weaknesses, places to drip his poison and manipulate her into thinking he was a semi-decent human being. 

 

More than decent, only a few short hours ago if you had asked her she would have said that she  _ loved  _ Jughead. 

 

All of the secret conversations with Reggie, her phone disappearing, her  _ bra _ going missing. 

 

How had it taken her so long to see the sick manipulation that was taking place, it was ridiculous, almost comical. 

 

She had nearly given him her virginity. 

 

At that a dark laugh rang out. Almost a bark, causing Jason to make a startled jump. 

She had been bitten by the most poisonous snake of all. Love. 

 

She wanted to be cold, uncaring, the strong woman who walked out of this with dark eyeliner, and leather thigh high boots. Unashamed and matter of fact about it all. 

 

But... _ no _ .

 

It felt like she had been punched in the gut, or her chest was being clawed open by someone with Cheryl's long vermillion nails. 

 

Wrapping her arms around herself she slid slowly to the floor, as Jason rushed forward to grip her arms. 

 

He looked frantic, as high school boys usually do in the presence of a crying female. 

But Betty had to give him credit, he didn’t back off. Not as she let silent tears fall down her cheeks, and not when she half heartedly beat her fists on his chest letting out crazed sobs and nonsensical words. 

 

She wasn’t what you would call a pretty crier. 

 

He only patted her back, and offered her the sleeve of his letterman. 

 

Now they sat silently in her driveway as she contemplated her next move. 

 

“Polly should be home soon”, her throat was raw, and her cheeks hurt from rubbing away salty tears. 

He only nodded and asked if she wanted to go in and clean up. 

 

His kindness was not something she would forget, nor take for granted. Polly had done good with him, despite his family. 

 

Betty could see that he was a good boy, and she knew that one day he could be a good  _ Man  _ for her sister. 

 

She took each step to her room slowly. Her mind flashing back to every intimate kiss, lingering touch, and heated eye contact they had shared. She felt the whisper of his hands at her bra clasp, the ghost of his lips on her collar bone. 

 

Each vision was marred, laid out for someone else’s viewing pleasure.

 

Had it been fun for him to knock her down a peg? To make her feel things for him so he could cruelly rip it all away. Pull the rug from beneath her feet and sneer as she fell in a heap on the floor. 

 

Hot tears flowed anew down her face as she slowly peeled off her clothes. She blindly started a shower and let it slowly heat up.

 

Staring at her reflection she look in wonder,

He’d made her feel bare. Like it didn’t matter that she was the girl next door or the stereotypical good girl. She hated what he’d done to her since he barreled into her life, hated how he made her laugh at his movie commentary or how she giggled every single times their noses accidentally bumped while they sat intertwined in the backseat of her car.

 

The only thing she despised more was that he had enough power over her to draw out more tears than she has ever shed for someone else.

 

Jughead Jones had made her  _ cry _ . 

 

Standing in the shower she pondered that fact. She never wept over Archie, sure a few stray tears were shed but she didn’t get puffy eyed, and drippy nosed over him.

 

Wrapping her arms around herself she stood until all of the hot water had run out and the last of her tears had safely vanished down the drain. 

—————

 

When she emerged she was shocked to see Polly sitting on the couch with Jason, well shocked to see them seated so closely to one another.

 

Her voice swallowed the room before they had the time to jump apart.

 

“Take me to Pop’s.”

 

And they did. 

They sat in silence, while acid still brewed in Betty’s gut, tainted memories rotted in her mind. 

 

She let herself hash out every insignificant detail, every missed sign, the moments they had together that were never truly private. 

 

They would not be the same, never again. 

 

Surely they had been having a good laugh of it for months.

 

Still seated in the plush leather seats of Jason’s car she peered into the warm bubble of Pop’s diner, pondering the total hurricane that was about to unleashed within, disturbing the peace of the student body present. 

 

Of course Reggie and his crew had already claimed a booth near to the front door. Raucous with laughter they beat their hands on the table and blew straw wrappers at one another, while sipping on an assortment of milkshakes and munching on heaping plates of French fries. 

 

It should have worried her, at least brought a bubble of anxiety in her knotted stomach.

 

But not tonight. 

 

No, tonight she felt herself slip into something else entirely. She felt liberated, but not in a way that meant freedom for her, no. 

 

In a way that made her feel as if nothing good or wholesome would ever tether her down again. No love, no words of hope or affirmation would bring her back to herself, not until she completed what she had come here to do. 

 

Her sister and Jason only looked at her from their front seats in concern. Honestly she didn't blame them one bit.

 

She was not entirely sure what she was going to do either. 

But it didn’t scare her, no, it just made her feel cold. She only stared unfocused out of the window. 

 

Rain had begun to fall, slowly turning into sleet from the freezing weather. It just occurred to her that her jacket still lay on the floor next to her bed. She only had on a thin long sleeve shirt, but she still didn’t feel the chill.  The heater up front did not touch her and even if it had, she wasn’t sure she would be  _ able _ to feel it.

 

Veronica looked radiant, chatting with Kevin who sat up on the back rest of their booth.

A picture perfect moment in time. 

 

The sight of bright red hair peering across a table at a charcoal gray beanie snapped her into motion. She whipped out of the car. Her seatbelt had clanging against the door as she failed to slam it shut. Polly and Jason jostled after her, frantically shutting off the engine and unbuckling their seatbelts. 

 

They weren’t fast enough. 

 

Honestly it felt like she floated to their little booth, near the back corner of the shoppe. 

 

His back faced her. 

 

_ Good, she wanted to catch him by surprise.  _

 

But oh god she must have looked like hell because as soon as she was within a few feet of the red booth seats they occupied Veronica’s eyes only widened and her usual warm complexion paled a few shades. 

 

Betty’s knew she had mascara under her eyes. She felt the damp sleeves of her thin pink shirt against her wrists. Her thin pants clung to her legs barely covering the tops of her moccasin slip on shoes. Blonde hair framed her face, tangled and creased from the ponytail it had been in for the past day. 

 

Veronica slapped Archie’s arm, hard enough to get his immediate attention. At the sight of her his eyebrows pulled together. Concern and anger crossing his face. Betty knew that he would want to hurt whatever jerk had made her look this way. 

 

The irony was not lost on her. 

 

It was the final head that turned that wracked her to the core, made her want to claw out her heart so that she would never have to feel whatever this was again. If she could she would have left it at the door step of his beat up trailer. 

 

It wasn’t as if there was much left of it anyway, and after this confrontation she was not too sure there would be any heart left in Elizabeth Cooper. 

Just the way Jughead Jones intended from the beginning. 

 

A smile fell off of his face, the remnant of a joke recently told or a quip only just exchanged with his best friend. At least with Archie she knew it wasn't at her own expense.

 

Words bubbled on his lips but before he would call them forth his head was flung to the side with a sharp crack. 

 

For a brief moment Betty thought she had done it. But her hands still lay at her sides, limp, too weak to even curl up into even a small fist. 

 

No it was her sister, Polly Cooper who stood lightly shaking her hand out. Honestly despite the obvious pain she was in Betty thought she might hit him again as he sat there with his right hand gingerly covering his eye. 

 

When she spoke she spat, venom and rage slipping into her voice. 

 

“That was for my sister you asshole.”

 

He only looked at her in confusion before turning his dark gaze to Betty. 

 

Behind her Jason carefully inspected Polly’s hand before calling out to Pop for an ice pack. 

As he guided her to the diner countertop she looked like she was still ready to go ten rounds with Reggie who had propped his feet up into the booth opposite of his body, popping French fries lazily into his mouth. It seemed he was done with whatever infatuation he had with Polly Cooper. 

 

This was far more interesting. 

 

The diner was quiet enough that she could hear the light tapping of their shoes as they slowly walked away. Polly only shot her a look, one that was meant to give her courage. 

 

She felt tired. Like she could lay in one of the booths and fall asleep unconcerned about the scene currently unfolding. At the same time she wanted to wake up, kicking, screaming, and clawing her way through. 

 

The dark haired boy only stood up from the booth, reaching for her arm, cautiously like he was approaching an injured animal. 

 

She barely felt a small course of pleasure at the hurt look on his face as she took the smallest step back from his form. 

 

“What the hell Betts, are you ok?”

 

Blonde strands had fallen in her face, and she wished she could have hidden her entire self behind the thin curtain. The heated stares of the diner patrons bore into her back, into her head, and into her heart. 

 

Reggie Mantle sat three booths down from her, his voice a constant buzzing that she couldn’t get out of her head. She wasn’t proud of it but when his lips pulled over his teeth into a conspiratorial smile and his eyes turned to her with malice in them she snapped. 

 

Her voice rang out clear and loud out into the quiet establishment. Everyone had waited with bated breathe to see why this disheveled Cooper girl was making such a scene. 

 

She turned on her heel away from the beanie clad boy and strode toward Reggies table. 

 

“Well did you win Reggie?” 

He feigned confusion as he cocked his head to the side, eyebrows lightly pulling together, lips pursed. 

 

“Oh you know, the little high stakes bet you had with Jones, so that you could manipulate Polly and I?” She took in deep breathes, “The one where you promised him money if he took me to the out, kissed me, and god knows what else.”

 

He opened his mouth to add something she assumed was intended to be clever, but she only steam rolled on. 

 

“Oh yeah what were the terms? If he took me to the formal or was it Prom? I am a little fuzzy on the details here.” An empty laugh escaped her lips. She hated the cruelty in it. 

 

Blonde hair swished as she snapped her head over her shoulder at Jughead, who stood with his hands still outstretched for her. 

 

She looked him up and down.

 

“Maybe you could shed some light on this.” She hated that she couldn’t keep a slight crack out of her voice. 

 

The black shirt he wore clung to his torso, his leather jacket had been previously discarded at the end of the booth where she normally would have sat. 

 

A bruise was starting to form on his eye, but that didn't seem to be what was causing him pain. Well, agony judging by his face. 

“Betty…” his voice broke and trailed off. His eyes had turned red as he stood there, with what she hoped was the same vulnerability that she felt. 

 

A tear dripped from her jaw onto the floor. She hadn’t realized tears had started crawling then flowing down her face, hot and angry. 

 

She had done so good. The strong woman in her patted her back, and whispered words of affirmation to her. But the scared girl, the one that she felt clawing back forced her to make a decision. 

 

Jason’s car revved to life once more outside the door and she let herself be calmed by the reliable purr of the engine 

 

“I hope you buy something really nice you cold hearted bastard.”

 

The words had the effect she intended as she saw him crumble in on himself. 

 

She nearly broke into a run as she hauled herself out of the too hot diner to the frigid air outside. 

 

The locks snapped into place on the door as she saw the door of Pop’s fling open nearly slamming into the wall behind it. 

 

His fists banged against the window, his voice desperate as the car began to pull slowly away. She couldn't make out what he said. She could only lay her head in the middle seat, curling into a small ball. 

 

His nostrils flared and his eyes were wild as he pounded. The gray beanie that usually covered his head had fallen off, surely into a puddle. 

 

The thought made her sad. 

 

Black hair fell forward into his eyes as he pleaded with her. Polly turned back, offering her hand. Betty squeezed it gently and look out at the boy that had hurt her for a moment longer. 

 

He leaned his forehead so that it touched the glass, and his breath fogged the window as he panted. 

“I’m so sorry baby.”

 

_ I know _ .

 

And she did. 

 

But the ache in her heart didn’t subside,  mountains didn’t move, and there was no earth shattering revelation. 

 

No she just sat there numb, but somehow still in agonizing pain. 

 

She would never forget the desperate look on his damp face as she looked up at him. 

 

“Drive please.”

 


	10. I Hate It When You’re Not Around, and the Fact That You Didn’t Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends, here is chapter 10!!! Only one more left ;) This one was a monster to tackle and I am a little nervous about it but I really hope you like what I did with it. There are probably more than a few error or grammar mistakes, but I just had to post this:) I couldn't wait any longer.   
> Also, I appreciate all of your feedback more than you could possibly know. It fuels my fire :D. 
> 
> This is one of my favorite chapters to write, but it was probably the most difficult for me.   
> Please let me know what you think and like I said previously, as soon as I am out of school for break and have a life again I will be going back through as editing this fic. 
> 
> Thanks and all the love in the world,
> 
> TAWOTWS

_ “Better once than never, for never too late.” _

_ ― William Shakespeare, the Taming of the Shrew _

 

Pride wouldn’t let Betty skip school the next day. Not even first period , during which Ronnie had offered to come over and have a personal chef prepare a delightful breakfast.

 

Besides Betty would have been disappointed to miss the spectacle that was Reggie Mantle the next day while walking down the hallway. 

 

It was a little hard to tell it was him at first, the dark bruises that had formed under his eyes did not do much for his looks. He was a palette of green, blue, and most of all a deep purple. His lips were both split, the top on more to the left while the bottom had a tear running straight down the middle, as if his teeth had caught it. At the sight of her blonde ponytail and Archie’s ginger hair he turned tail and from what Betty could tell found an alternative route to the classroom that was a mere ten feet in front of him. 

 

She couldn’t help but let her mind wander to the bruised and likely bleeding hands that had caused it. His knuckles were easy to picture, their delicate ridges that had once caressed her face. 

 

Something akin to pity welled up in her gut. 

 

No she did not pity the boy that had to go toe to toe with Jughead. From what Archie had told her he had a pretty mean right hook.

 

But this was far from a rivalry squabble, no it looked like Jughead had definitely intended to inflict this kind of damage. In fact it seemed that he hadn’t even been finished by the time he was pulled from Reggie. 

 

It was unhealthy but she couldn’t help but imagine how Reggie’s opposition looked. 

 

_ Was he hurt? Bruised? Aching? _

 

The wholesome and good part of her wanted him to be okay. 

 

But the darkest part of her wanted him to be curled up somewhere nursing his wound with an ice pack, unable to move without a twinge of discomfort. 

 

It was the least he was owed. 

 

Still, no matter what she preferred, seeing Reggie Mantle looking like a kicked puppy brought her the same amount of satisfaction. 

 

Archie smirked when he saw it, as did Ronnie and Kevin. 

 

They hadn’t exactly been clingy but since her outburst the previous evening they had formed a sort of unspoken protective circle around her. Walking her to each class, giving the stink eye to anyone who approached a ten foot radius of their lunch table. 

 

Surprisingly even Cheryl didn’t see fit to make snide remarks behind her back.

 

_ I need to remember and thank Jason for that.  _

 

She appreciated it. More than he could know, having this solitude to mull over what she had experienced at the hands of someone she cared for so deeply. 

 

So far she had kept it together, not speaking much, keeping her head in the sand so to speak. 

 

Two weeks later the circumstances changed, much to her own chagrin. 

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Betty wasn’t proud of what she did. 

 

For nearly fifteen days she had held it together. The bubble of her few friends had been doing her good. Veronica and Kevin had been irreplaceable, keeping her distracted, ensuring the conversation never led to any ‘undesirable’ topics.

 

Archie was much the same, but she knew that despite his betrayal she couldn’t begrudge Archie his best childhood friend other than herself. 

 

It simply wasn’t in her nature. 

 

Still much to her appreciation the red-head did not so much as breathe a word about him in front of her, although she knew he had been talking about him with Ronnie. Often with worry plastered on his face. 

She could forgive him for that, especially since he had made sure to be there for whatever she needed, a ride from cheerleading, a homework buddy, even an assistant for student council meetings. 

 

Honestly it was the most time they had spent together in ages.

 

All thanks to the Serpent Prince and Reggie Mantle.

 

_ The Serpent Prince _ she would bitterly snort to herself. 

 

She hated him, so much it hurt, so much it pulled her awake in the middle of the night. Her hands would reach out for someone as the images of a beanie clad head hovered on the edge of her thoughts. They taunted her, tempted her. 

 

_ See what could of been? See what you can never have? _

 

In the evenings the occasional branch would tap her window due to the windy March evenings. At first it would cause her to fly out of her bed, swearing as she would open it and peer down at her dewy grass. 

 

Empty. Always empty. 

 

Yes it hurt. Sometimes unbearably so.

But Betty was not one to let a boy run her life, no she would only wallow a bit longer. 

 

She had to return to normal at some point.

 

But something wouldn’t let her.

 

It wasn’t until the first night of spring break that she was able to tap into what it actually was. 

 

_ He hadn’t even tried to call her.  _ Yes that was it. 

 

At first it baffled her.  He had seemed apologetic at the diner, broken even. 

 

But her phone sat, silent, mocking her as she attempted in vain to do her homework.

 

She glared at it, and felt enticed to open her window and hurl it onto the freshly clipped lawn.

 

Feeling more than a little pathetic she leaned back from her English essay and cracked her back. 

 

_ It is the week of spring break and I am in here writing an essay that isn’t due until May. There is not much lower that I can get.  _

 

She had figuratively given Archie and Veronica the week off from “Betty Watch” so they could have a night out and some much needed time to themselves. Kevin was off with a new fling he had met at the game against the Baxter High Ravens. 

 

So she was truly alone for the first time in a while. It had taken her long enough to restrain herself from constantly checking her phone, fiddling with the case, or even checking her texts to make sure she hadn’t miss one. 

 

Of course she had made her feelings clear that night at Pop’s, but she didn’t feel that it was criminal of her to expect an explanation from him.  

 

Pushing her head closer she attempted to focus on her essay.

In usual fashion her mind would not cooperate, floating off to her memories, rearing their ugly head once again. She thought of  _ him. _

 

His voice, his breath on the shell of her ear. 

 

_ “ _ _ "Do you plan on buckling up or am I expected to hold you in?" _

 

The shine in his eyes as he teased her, the softness of his hair between her fingers. Even his horrible driving. 

 

Thoughts flooded her brain, very nearly suffocating her. It felt just like the night everything had fallen apart. Her breathing deepened, and a sob threatened to crawl from her throat once more. 

 

_ No. You have made it three weeks without shedding another damn tear. Don’t start now.  _

 

A sharp sound startled her, nearly causing her to lean out of her swivel chair. Her head snapped to her window once more, expecting a sound to follow. When she saw nothing she looked down at her fingers to see what had actually caused the noise. 

 

Her pencil lay in two large pieces, splintering in the middle. She was lucky it hadn’t cut open any of her fingers. 

 

A sigh left her body as she shoved her self back violently and jumped out of the chair running down stairs.

 

She found herself in her dim garage, staring at the cloth covered hood of her baby. 

Untouched, not since they had last sat in it, when she had nearly given him everything. 

 

_ Her love, her body, her soul.  _

 

Pulling off the tarp was like taking a knife and ripping open any stitches she had shoddily applied to herself. 

 

She moved without thinking toward her workbench and before she could draw another breath a wrench was in her hands. It was cold, icy from the weather outside. Her knuckles were white around it. 

 

The glass shattered all at once. Scattering all over the concrete shimmering off of the dull fluorescent light buzzing above her. In one more breath she had moved on to other areas. 

 

The hood took longer, but it eventually gave. Denting, paint chipping off. Nothing that could be passed off as mere hail damage. 

 

She was thankful her parents had taken a night out because she had started shouting. 

 

“I-” Slam “Loved-” Slam “You”.

 

She was panting by the time she could destroy the taillights. 

 

By the time she had wrecked each on to pieces the numbness in her body reached her legs forcing her to fold  them and sit on the dirty and oily floor.

 

Nobody was there but she whispered to herself anyway as her long overdue tears mixed with the rainbow sheen of the oil.

 

“I fucking loved you.” Only the buzz of the light above her and the darkness gazing in from outside was there to listen. 

 

They both watched as she chucked the wrench on the workbench and clumsily pulled the cloth back over the ruined machine. 

 

\----------------------------------------------------

Only a week after her episode with the car did chaos enter her life once more in the familiar form of Reginald Mantle. 

 

She usually went out of her way to avoid the guy, even though it gave her sick pleasure to see his slowly healing face periodically. The light purple and blue slowly fading away. A good reminder. 

 

Not only did the sight of him make her feel queasy but he was also known to be a bit of a loudmouth. Luckily whatever filth he was currently spewing did not pertain to her. 

 

No, he enjoyed his male parts attached. And from what she could glean about the situation the no talking rule was strictly upheld by a few lingering Serpents on the edge of campus boundaries.

 

At least she could thank Jughead for that. 

 

Still it didn’t keep him from saying anything about Polly. 

Which is what brought her to the issue she was currently faced with.

 

She had been borrowing a textbook from Dr. Phylum when she heard his voice echoed off of the lockers. 

 

“Yeah I dumped Polly she was a good bit of fun, but almost nearly as uptight as her sister.”

 

There was a loud thunk, like he had been slapped on the back. 

 

“A guy can only go so long with kissing eh Moose?”

 

The sound of hands clapping together rang out as they strolled away. 

 

_ Up tight? _

 

Nearly having sex in the back of a car after a dance was uptight? 

 

And Polly? Uptight as well, she had been sure they had at least gone to second base on one of their many dates. 

 

How could he ever compare  the two of them after hearing that she had nearly given up her virginity to the leader of the Southside Serpents. 

 

A gasp escapes her throat, and echoes off the walls of the empty classroom. 

 

_ Unless Reggie doesn’t know about the car… _

 

Her mind begins to race.

 

_ Unless Jughead hadn’t been sharing the entire story with Reggie.  _

 

_ Had he been feeding him false information? Or any information at all? _

 

Hope welled within her and her eyes widened. Enough was enough. She needed to talk to him, face to face. The only problem was now she didn't have a car. 

 

Leaning against an old desk she let out a long sigh before lightly rubbing her temples. 

 

Sure people said many nasty things about karma, but it was irony that was the real bitch. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Vixen practice takes place in the gym, due to the apparently torrential rain taking place in the city of Riverdale. 

 

It doesn’t let up  as she sprints out the double doors.

 

At least she had changed back into her jeans and short sleeve shirt from the school day. Still, they didn’t do much good without an umbrella. 

 

At least she hadn’t worn sandals. Flats weren’t much better, but they were an improvement and they were much better walking shoes. 

 

She stepped out into the parking lot and quickly becoming drenched. 

 

_ I have to get to him.  _ Calling Archie, Ronnie, or even Kevin might give her time to convince herself not to go. 

 

It had to be today. Right now. 

 

She needed answers, closure, but mostly she needed to hear the words straight from him. 

 

Stumbling around the parking lot she searches for someone, anyone who could give her a lift. 

Turned out she doesn’t have to look long. 

 

A serpent she vaguely recognized sits under an old oak tree just across the lot. 

She pulls off her leather flats and jogs over to him. He looks like he might swing his leg over the bike and leaver her there, wet, and shivering.

 

“Sweet Pea.”

 

He nods, “Betty.”

 

“I’m not even going to ask you why you have been here for the past weeks, because I think I know the answer.” 

 

A sheepish expression clouds his face and he shrugs, “Boss’s orders Blondie.”

 

She only gives him a distracted nod, trying to focus on keeping her teeth from chattering. 

 

Looking at her he peels of his jacket and holds it out to her. 

 

Part of her wants to tell him to keep it, simply because it feels wrong. It’s not  _ Jughead’s  _ jacket. 

It’s silly, but something about it bothers her. 

 

“Look its a jacket I’m not proposing marriage. Just take it, Jones will have my ass if I let you freeze to death out here.”

She takes it in her fingers and slides it on, still hesitating, but the warmth eases her concerns slightly. 

 

The silence is awkward, as she only stares at him for a few beats.

 

“Take me to him please.”

 

His lips pulled into a slight frown but he nodded anyway, much to her relief.

 

“I don’t carry a helmet Blondie, so take care not to fall off.”

 

Nodding seriously she swings her leg over the back as he climbs on the front. 

 

It’s awkward riding with him, he’s a bit bulkier than Jughead, meaning she can barely fit her arms around him. It’s uncomfortable and she has to curl her fingers into the cloth of his shirt in order to stay on the bike.

 

Stiffness from the cold has set in as they pull into the trailer park. The wind from the drive has  chilled her even further despite the coat. Wet jeans cling to her legs and she attempts to keep more water from pooling into her flats. 

 

The sun is setting as they pull in to his lot. 

 

If Jughead heard the bike there was no indication. Not even the curtain cracked open. 

 

The rumble of the engine cuts out as she stiffly dismounts the bike.

 

Sweet Pea only follows her with his eyes, his breath coming out in puffs that she can see.

 

She didn’t want to make him stay.

 

But she needed a way out just in case. An escape.

 

Her legs ache as she walks up the steps of the porch, slowly and carefully.

 

She’d never noticed the small welcome mat that sat in the threshold. Looking back she glanced at Sweet Pea who only nodded grimly at her.

 

Gently she taps her knuckles against the door. She counts twenty breaths of silence. Not a sound or so much as a movement from inside. 

 

_ Maybe he really isn’t home?  _

_ He could be at the Whyte Wyrm moving on with some other  girl. _

_ Maybe he’s off spending all that money somewhere. _

 

The door swings open violently nearly slamming into the wall. The boy standing behind it is a stranger to her.

 

His eyes are red, bloodshot. Framed by his overgrown raven hair standing in all directions, looking like he hadn’t bothered to touch it in days.

 

The white tank top he wears has innumerable stains on the front and his plaid pajama pants looked like they have spent their fair amount of time in the dirty clothes hamper. 

 

It takes a moment for his eyes to widen in recognition.

 

“B-Betts?” His mouth sags open as he leans forward to brace a hand on the door frame.

She can’t look at him, his face, his lips. So instead she focuses on the interior behind his body.

 

It is a mess. Clothes strewn about, dishes on nearly every surface. A stack of pizza boxes that could very nearly reach the tops of her knees was teetering at the left of the door jamb.

 

She feels the heat of his gaze tracing her body, appraising and checking for anything out of place. 

 

His eyes catch on the leather covering her arms and before she can think she shrugs out of it as he casts a glare at the boy sitting on his bike in the yard. 

 

She turns around and makes eye contact with the boy as she lays it on the bannister if the porch, nodding slightly in thanks and in dismissal.

 

_ You can go.  _ He gives a small tilt of his chin in answer before grabbing the article and taking off down the drive.  

 

She can hear the Jughead exhale deeply and sees tension leave his body.

 

When she looks up at him again she forces herself to look in his eyes.

 

“May I come in?”

 

He stumbles backward. 

 

“I-yes of course,let me-“ he picks up clothing and makes a path for her toward the kitchen table , clearing a spot for her to sit.

 

She steps in carefully, cautiously and sits lightly on the hard wooden chair, marking the green paint on the cabinets.

 

His voice is quiet, timid. 

 

“Can I get you something to drink?”

 

The blonde strands of her ponytail bob as she nods her head. 

 

He moves slowly around the kitchen, careful it seems, not to make any sudden movements.

 

Dark blue eyes keep glancing back at her, ensuring that she is still there, reaffirming that she hasn’t taken off out of the front door yet. Like she is an apparition and she may vanish at any moment.

 

The smell of hot cocoa pilfers through the small kitchenette and comforts her. 

Nails threaten to dig into her hands, but instead pick at the coaster in front of her. 

 

It’s too hard to look at him so she focuses on the small square of cork. 

 

When he finally slides her a cup and sits across from her folded hands his face is pale. His eyes devour her, taking as much of her appearance as he can, like a starving man in front of a buffet. 

 

They sit for a moment, looking at one another, feeling out each others presence. His eyes were dark in a way she had never seen. Dark like they had just seen the last good thing in this world shatter to pieces. The purple bags underneath bruised him, and aged him ten years.. 

When he leans forward and places his face into his cut and bruised fingers she feels a strong twinge of nervousness. 

 

He runs his long fingers through his limp raven locks before gently rubbing his eyes.

Staring at the table he speaks, “Please-”, but she cuts him off. 

 

Her voice a weak whisper in the air. 

 

“You didn’t even call.” He stills  and for a moment she is unsure if he has heard her.   
  


Still, she continues.

 

“I was furious, heartbroken,” her voice cracks as she clasps her hands tighter around the mug, “It tore me apart Jughead.” His head shakes in his hands, not in denial but in anguish. 

 

“Oh god baby I know, I know,” it sounds as if his throat is closing shut. 

 

His misery is palpable, so much that she can almost taste it. She hates to twist the knife deeper but she  _ has  _ to know the truth. 

 

“Then why did you do it?”

 

It was a simple question, but it was one that she had been unable to answer for weeks. It had leaked it ichor in her mind, the blackness polluting and devouring any logic that she could hammer out. 

 

She barely sees a small tear race down the side of his face.

 

It makes her freeze.

_ Jughead Jones is crying.  _

 

She almost jerks in shock. 

 

Archie Andrews had known him longer than she had, not by much, but they had been inseparable. He often told her, bragged even, that he had never ever seen Jughead shed so much as a tear. 

 

Not when he broke his leg in third grade, not when he and Archie stopped talking right after he joined the Serpents, and not even when his mom bailed on him and left with Jellybean. 

 

But there he sat, one lowly tear consuming all of the air in the cramped kitchen. 

 

Suddenly he seemed too far away, across the table. 

 

Never taking his eyes off of her he slowly lifted a hand to wipe it away before speaking. 

 

“It would be easier for me to show you,” his eyes beseeched hers, “please just see for yourself.”

 

It should have been harder to decide, two days ago she would have happily let him sweat it out. Suffer a little bit before slamming the door behind her and never looking back. 

 

That part of her had taken off, left for good. In this trailer with him, she couldn’t be that girl, that woman who didn’t have a care if he hurt her forever. No he knew her too well, he knew her vulnerabilities, her fears, her insecurities. 

 

But most of all he knew her heart. And that fact was what anchored her to that rickety kitchen  chair and forced her to nod her head. 

 

He exhaled the breath she didn’t know he’d been holding. 

 

Jumping up he darted to the living room before returning with a small laptop. 

 

He opens it and makes a few brief clicks before facing it towards her. 

 

“These are my journal entries, starting at the beginning of the year before this whole shit show, all the way until two weeks ago.” She felt warmth radiating off of his skin and his breath on her shoulder. 

 

“Take your time.” he whispers. 

 

And she does. 

 

She reads. And reads. Not stopping until she is forced to move to the outlet in the living room. Not stopping, even when she has to text her mother that she was staying at Veronica’s for the night. 

 

She changes into one of his shirts and a pair of old plaid pajama pants. It seems like she drinks  nearly an entire gallon of hot chocolate. 

 

He doesn’t say a word the entire time. He only ensures that her mug remains full. 

 

The early entries before he and Reggie struck their bargain were much the same. His thoughts on his situation in life. His escapades with Archie. There were even a few parts about Veronica. Betty herself was only mentioned in passing a few times in the beginning. He didn’t waste much space on either of the girls, only talking about Betty when he had deemed that something she did on a certain day was particularly annoying or antagonistic.

 

Nearly an hour after starting she finally comes to the first mentions of Reggie and their bargain.

 

_ Mantle ensured me that it would be simple. All I have to do is string Cooper on long enough for him to get in his jollies and I can make out like a bandit. It shouldn't be too difficult, I don’t like to consider myself greedy but a little extra money here and there wouldn't hurt. Besides turning down a brand new bike simply isn’t done. Plus, I get the added benefit of knocking Elizabeth Cooper off of her high horse….. _

 

She shot a glare at his form sitting in the rocking chair across the room. 

 

He only raises his hands in surrender and gestures at her to keep reading. 

 

The first time they had ridden together, him elaborating on her genius with cars. Teaching her how to drive a stick. They started to flow together more. Becoming deeper and deeper. 

 

_ God, her eyes are so impossibly green. For fuck’s sake she was laying her head in my lap at the demon Cheryl Blossom’s house and all I could think about was how much they shine when she smiles….. _

 

_ I could watch her tinker with that car all day, handing her whatever wrench or bolt she asks for. Is it pathetic that I slowed down teaching her driving. I just needed it to last longer.... _

 

_ Reggie was late on his payment again, had to send Sweet Pea after him. Nearly had to force him to cough it up at the party, but he insists that the deal is still on. I am not sure how much longer I can do this. He asks me how its going with ‘Baby Cooper’ and I have never wanted to punch his face more. Only a few more months before I can kick his teeth in for thinking about her like that. _

 

Her hand covers her mouth lightly as she reaches the part of their exploration in the back of her car. 

 

_ Her lips taste like strawberry bubblegum. Strawberry. Bubblegum.  _

_ If that is the only thing i can taste for the rest of my life I will happily take it.  _

 

_ She was so beautiful tonight, I nearly blew it when I saw that dress.... _

_ I think I love her. I think I love Betty Cooper. _

_ Shit. _

 

A tear escapes her now puffy eyes. 

 

When she get to the entries starting three weeks ago a small sob escapes as she scrolls. 

 

The day of Pop’s was the shortest she had seen. 

 

_ She knows. The look on her face nearly ripped me to pieces. But knowing that I was the one that put it there is the worst part. My knuckles are still bleeding, but weirdly enough I can’t feel them at all.  _ _ I can’t feel anything.  _

 

There is a stretch of two weeks before another entry is made. 

Last weekend.

 

_ Sweet Pea is keeping tabs, giving me the barest updates. He’s pissed too, pissed that I was such a goddamn fool. Haven’t been sleeping well. I keep seeing blonde hair,just out of reach. Green orbs going away just as I get a good enough look.  _

 

_ I need to talk to her, but I don’t deserve it. She deserves more than me. So much fucking better.  _

_ I love her. I love her. I love her.  _

_ But she’s not coming back.  _

 

It ends there and when she looks up once more she sees him leaning forward, elbows on his knees. 

 

He looks younger, his eyes wide and hopeful. Gently the laptop shuts and she sets it on the coffee table. 

 

It contains the entire record, the deceit, the lies, the pain. She wants to chuck it out of the nearest window. 

 

But she can’t, because it also contains something else. Something more important, and much more valuable. 

 

His heart, his soul, but most of all the  _ truth _ , his truth. 

 

A grim smile threatens to take over her lips. 

 

God, she had hated him too in the beginning. 

 

There had to be some divine being laughing it up right now. 

 

The past weeks she had been so afraid. Scared she had deserved it all somehow, as punishment for being naive. For not listening to her mother. Terrified that she had placed her heart in the wrong person’s hands. 

 

He had betrayed her. She knew it. He knew it.

 

Hell, thanks to her outburst the whole town of Riverdale knew it. 

 

But they didn’t have a say in what she did. They didn’t have to forgive him, he didn’t even have to forgive himself. 

 

Only she had to forgive him. And right now as she looked at him she knew all the proverbial cards were on the table. Albeit in the form of a slightly beaten up laptop. 

 

His story.

_ Their story.  _

 

And despite the past days, her pain, suffering, and heartache. 

 

She wanted that story to continue. The curtains were not drawn, this movie had not faded to black just yet. 

 

So she lays a hand on the cushion next to her and pats it lightly.

 

“Come here.”

\----------------------------------

 

They laid there for hours it seemed, tangled in one another, rotating as their limbs went numb.

 

They watch the raindrops trail down the glass of the windows and listen to the faint beating of the drops on the roof. His warm hands rub circles in her back while she traces the veins of his arms with the tip of her index finger. . 

 

He asks her questions. 

 

What she did for the past weeks. 

 

She tells him everything, every breakdown, every tear shed, even about the shattered car in her garage. Nothing embarrassed her, nothing is off limits, and at each confession he pulls her tighter. 

 

Drowsiness slowly claims each of them and the last words she can form are muffled against his chest. 

 

“I hated that you weren’t around.”

 

He only kisses the top of her head, breathing deeply into her hair. 

 

“Me too baby, me too.”

 


	11. Mostly, I Hate the Way I Don’t Hate You, Not Even Close... Not Even a Little Bit...Not Even At All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obligatory reminder that this fic is in fact rated M ;)  
> Here it is my lovelies, the final chapter. 
> 
> Enjoy!

_ “Say she rail; why, I'll tell her plain _

_ She sings as sweetly as a nightingale. _

_ Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear _

_ As morning roses newly wash'd with dew. _

_ Say she be mute and will not speak a word; _

_ Then I'll commend her volubility, _

_ and say she uttereth piercing eloquence.”  _

 

  * __William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew__



 

 

The next weeks passed without issue. 

In fact they had been days of bliss that Betty had dearly missed out on throughout the first part of the new semester. 

 

Jughead had been…. _ amazing. _

 

There was no other way she could describe it. She hated to be that girl that always was stuck to her boyfriend's side, or only talked about him but she couldn’t stay away from him and she found that often in silence she only wished to have it filled by his voice. 

 

Nowadays if she wasn’t curled up on the couch with him in his trailer they were chatting over milkshakes at Pop’s or sitting on her bed doing homework. 

 

Even her mother had warmed up to him again, but not before sitting across from him at dinner wielding a chef’s knife and making heavy implications that if he hurt or impregnated her daughter that she would find a good use for it.

 

One night, barely a week previous he had snuck into her bedroom window. Much to the ignorance of Mrs. Cooper and stayed the night wrapped around Betty’s body.

 

She had never felt this way about  any boys she had dated previously.

 

This need to be close.

 

To talk about her joys, her fears, and even her weaknesses. 

 

Never in a billion years would she have dreamed that she would be sharing her soul with Jughead Jones, the boy who had made her elementary and middle school years complete hell. 

 

They had despised each other, and to say that was an understatement.

 

But now, she couldn’t help the affection that burned within herself. The need to protect him from the horrors of his world, and to sooth his own turmoil. He shared himself with her equally. Telling her things that she was sure not even Archie knew about. 

 

His father in prison, how much he missed Jellybean.  Being abandoned by his own mother. 

 

But she wasn’t the only one that had noticed the change in their relationship from a fling to something much more intense. The lingering glances, the heated cheeks after being in a room alone together. Flustered words at the dinner table when a hand went from comfortably sitting on her knee to a place much higher. 

 

Which consequently led her to the clinic not two weeks after their reunion in his trailer. She had been flanked by Polly and Veronica and they had held her hand for the entire appointment. They had each made three finger signs to ensure that her birth control was taken promptly and every day.

 

She hadn’t told Jughead of course. 

It was hard for her to say exactly why, but she liked to think of it as a secret for herself to share when she was ready. A card up her sleeve. One that both of them could enjoy when the time was right. 

 

That set her body aflame just thinking about it. Before him she had not had much experience with boys. Kisses and dates only, maybe the occasional hand up the shirt.

 

Never actual sex. She had never wanted to do it with anyone. Now she realized she hadn’t even really wanted to do it with Archie. 

 

That had been mere curiosity, a testing of the waters. 

 

What she was feeling now, this was something akin to shedding her skin and jumping into the deep end unafraid.

 

She knew how Jughead felt about it when they had discussed it the week previous. 

 

They had flopped on her bed, her reading while he played with a stray hair that had fallen out of her immaculate ponytail. 

 

“Betty I will literally take whatever you give me.” she had smiled sweetly at him, “If you decide to become a nun I will support you wholeheartedly and go to the church every sunday just to see you.” She had laughed and smacked him on the arm. 

 

“I’m not going to be a nun Juggie.” Rolling her eyes she watched as he twisted the blond stand of her hair between his fingers. She then shifted so that her feet could be pulled into his lap and he began to massage each arch and each calf with a generous and tender hand. 

 

She heard a low “Thank god” escape his lips and let the foot he was not holding nudge his stomach lightly. 

 

His eyes were playful, “So that’s how it is now Betts? You abuse me and I just sit her and massage your feet like a good boyfriend?”. Black hair had fallen into his eyes that had darkened.

 

Sticking her tongue out slightly she nodded. He moved so quickly she didn’t have time to react before he had pushed her feet off his lap and crawled over her. One knee sat on the top of her duvet outside her body while the other had wedged itself between her legs gently. 

 

His nose nearly touched hers and suddenly breathing became a lot more difficult than she remembered it being. 

 

There was a small smattering of freckles on his cheek and she had the sudden urge to pick up her index finger and trace them lightly.  

 

He opened his mouth breathing softly and she could see words forming on his lips while his navy eyes peered into hers. They were sweet, crinkled in the corners and one side of his mouth was tugged up into a soft grin. 

 

“I….” he leaned in only an inch more, allowing his cheek to touch hers while his breathe tickled the outer shell of her ear. 

 

Obediently she tilted her next more to the side, baring the skin completely to him. A shot of surprise crossed his face before being masked by something darker. 

 

The soft grin turned to something deliciously sinister.

 

Teeth delicately skimmed her earlobe and she couldn’t help but squirm underneath him. A breath of amusement came from him as he moved down to the side of her neck. Her hips swiveled underneath him and she could feel the warmth of his legs between the inside skin of her knees. 

 

She allowed on leg to bend slightly coming into contact with the seam of his dark wash jeans. 

It was like he had been shocked. Pulling back and panting he returned to her ear once more. 

 

“Betts I have to tell you something-” his breath came out in hot gusts while she undulated beneath him. 

 

Closing her eyes she tilted her head back even more. 

 

“Yes Jug?” It came out innocent and unassuming.

 

“I shit-” he let out a low groan. 

 

His hand hurried down her sides, clamping on each side of her waist. They gently but firmly held her still. She could feel the searing heat of each them through the thin material of her shirt. 

 

“I can’t think when your doing that.”

 

She tried her best not to look too pleased and gestured for him to speak.

 

Taking a deep breath he leaned back so that the back of his thighs rested on his calves. 

 

“I have a surprise for you.” At this she perked up, sliding so her back was against her headboard. 

 

The playful mood had not left her. Letting sock clad foot run along his thigh she tilted her head. 

 

“Oh yea? What is it Juggie?”

 

He gave her a look that would have sent most serpents crawling into their dens as he grasped her ankle. 

 

“You have to go to Prom with me to get it Cooper.”

 

Now this certainly intrigued her. Jughead Jones was voluntarily going to a Riverdale High School Dance without having a gun pointed at his head or the promise of monetary compensation?

 

Her eyebrows pulled together as she leaned up.

 

“A dance?”

 

He only nodded and she saw the faintest tint of pink at the tips of his ears.

 

“Is that a yes?”

 

Grinning she leaned forward letting her lips touch his only slightly more chastely than five minutes ago.

 

“It’s a yes Jug.”

 

He pulled her forward once more before they untangled their bodies.

 

Excitement bubbled within her, dampened only slightly by the promise of a shopping marathon brought on by Veronica. 

 

Still it was hard to remain too anxious, especially with lips pressed to her neck and whispering in her ear. 

————————-

 

Veronica had a field day shopping for dresses with Betty and Polly.

 

The sisters nearly collapsed upon returning to their own front door threshold as the raven haired girl cheerfully trotted away in her three inch heels.

 

Jason had asked Polly to the dance only a few nights after Jughead had asked Betty.

 

It wasn’t a surprise to either girl. Polly and Jason had dated and liked each other before. But it seemed that the rekindling of their feelings for each other wasn’t just like relighting a candle, but like pouring kerosene and lighting an entire bonfire.

 

The look that her sister got in her eyes when they were together told Betty everything she needed to know about her relationship with Jason Blossom.

 

She knew her sister was in love, mainly because she had the same expression on her own face any time she was with Jughead. 

 

The night of the dance with their dresses fitted and their shoes picked out they gathered their essentials before heading to Veronica’s loft in the Pembrooke.

 

The raven haired girl had been irreplaceable, helping in all fashion decisions and ensuring that all the boys had gotten their tuxedos fitted appropriately and color coordinated. 

 

Even Jughead had not been able to slither out of her clutches. Betty remembered the night he had been fitted with a smile.

 

He had been poked and prodded within an inch of his life and the only thing that would do to put him out of his foul mood had been for herself to apply a light kiss on each sore area. Although there had been some that he insisted one kiss would not be enough for. 

 

As they finished getting ready she couldn’t help put feel a sense of excitement, but also a feeling of complete contentment.

 

The feeling of being so deeply and completely in love. 

 

With is black hair, that leather jacket, how he  _ smelled  _ they were all things that were utterly  _ him. _

 

His arms while he held her, the way his feet would find her legs while they lay in curled up in her bed. Him always allowing her to warm her chilled hands on the tender skin of his stomach.

 

Two parts of one whole.

 

Of course he had his serpents, the boys and girls he lead while on the south side. That was just as a part of his life as the vixens and the newspaper was for her. There was no part she didn’t love of him no darkness she didn’t reach for and hold close to her heart.

 

As they prepared to depart for prom she had expected the roar of a motorcycle engine. What she was greeted with was so much better.

 

Acapulco blue, freshly waxed, and purring like a kitten. 

He stepped out of he car, crossed his arms and grinned at her.

 

Tearing her eyes off the machine she took him in. His shoulders, his chest, and even his thighs perfectly covered by the fabric of his suit. 

 

She would thank Veronica later, with a very  _ very  _ good gift. The girl deserved diamonds for this.

 

His dark hair had fallen forward as he looked at her and smiled,

 

“She’s a beauty.”

 

And she somehow knew he wasn’t talking about the car.

 

“How?” Her throat was tight as happy tears threatened to ruin her makeup. She looked around to ask Polly or Veronica for a tissue but saw that they had remained in the house to give them some privacy.

 

He stepped closer, bringing a hand up to caress the side of her face, letting his thumb wipe away a tear that had only just formed.

 

“Your dad found the glass in the ground, didn’t take him long to figure it out. He caught me one night after I’d walked you to the door.”

 

She nodded remembering the night her father had brought up the car, asking her if she had been learning to drive alright.

 

“He told me about it, and Betts I️ don’t blame you one bit. We both know I️ was a total asshole.”

 

They both laughed as she brought up a hand to her other eye, wiping away more salty tears.

 

“Don’t cry Betts.”

 

Nodding she looked up at him again allowing him to pull her head into his chest. 

 

Holding her for a moment they stood in silence.

 

Before she let her hand smack the side of his arm. 

 

“ You can’t just buy me new car parts everytime you make me mad at you.”

 

His head tilted back and he barked out a laugh.

 

“Don’t worry Betts there are plenty more classics I’m sure you wouldn’t mind fixing up.”

 

It was her turn to laugh and smother a smile.  

 

Looping her arm through his they turned and headed up for photographs, only for Betty to be scolded by Veronica for ruining her makeup masterpiece.

 

Betty drove them to the high school, rejoicing in the sound of the engine. Admiring the way it felt to shift between the gears. They took the long way before parking and walking hand in hand up to the building.

 

They immediately found Polly and Jason, and soon after found Archie and Veronica talking to Kevin and his date.

 

It was truly a night unlike any other. Cheryl didn’t stoop to speak to her, much to her pleasure. And Reggie was merely an insect under her high heel for all she could care. He had seen Jughead enter the gym and decided there were much better places to be. 

 

The punch flowed, the music pounded and as she twirled across the dance floor with Jughead it felt like life would never stop being as beautiful as it was just now.

 

It was nearly ten o’clock with an hour left in the dance when she leaned in a breathed hot air onto his pulse.

 

“Do you want to get out of here?”

 

He only breathed out a faint “Uh-huh” before being led out by his hand. Betty threw a pointed look at Veronica and Polly who were having a conversation near the door.

 

Polly only grinned knowingly while Veronica mouthed a quick ‘good luck’ before they were off into the chilly night air.

 

————-

 

She allowed him to drive.

 

On the passenger side she unclasped the small buckle on each of her heels before shoving them under her seat. 

 

Trees passed her by and she knew immediately where they were headed.

 

The very same place where she had first  _ really _ kissed. And quite possibly the only place in their incredibly tiny town that they could be completely uninterrupted for a few hours. 

 

Betty had already set up with her parents that she and Polly would be staying at Veronica’s for the night. Polly had been a last minute addition to the plan, but Betty had an idea of what she was planning on doing with her alone time with Jason. 

 

It seemed that everyone in Riverdale were each under their own love spell on this particular night. 

 

She had all night, and all morning if she liked. Just the two of them together, glancing sideways at the boy who had captured her heart it was more than she could have hoped for. 

 

As her car slowed to a stop she felt her pulse begin to race. Turning off the ignition he turned to her and she was suddenly grateful for the chilly weather preventing the windows from fogging up too quickly. 

 

He looked at her for a moment as if he was seeing her for the very first time. Her royal blue dress reflected in the dashboard window and she felt the warmth of his hands tracing her cheek bones. 

 

“There is no way you are real.” 

She only smiled and tilted her head further towards him. 

 

His voice was gravelly as he spoke again, “because if you were I would have to tell you that I love you.”

 

The world stopped, the trees swaying outside made no noise as she watched his lips move. 

His fingers trembled. He was nervous. Scared. 

 

_ Of her? _

 

She hadn’t thought it possible for a strong gang leading boy to be afraid of a girl that usually wore pastels and a light blonde ponytail. But she knew.

 

She could crush him with a word, hurt him with only a shake of her head. 

 

But that would never happen. He waited with baited breath and she let her lips pull up into a soft sweet smile. 

 

“I never took you for such a romantic Juggie, what would Sweet Pea say?”

He pulled her across the middle seat.  Sliding easily on the slick leather she braced her hands on his chest while he brought his mouth to hers.

 

Teeth nibbled her lower lip and hands cradled her face. 

 

She laid a hand on his chest and pushed him back gently. 

 

“I love you too Jughead Jones.”

 

And that was enough. 

Diving to the back seat she dug her nails into the lapels of his ridiculously expensive suit and yanked him across the threshold with her. 

 

Pulling off his coat with a flourish her fingers reach for the buttons of his starched white shirt. The buttons don’t come apart fast enough and he grins at the sound of frustration she lets out. 

 

His hands reach behind her as she continues to struggle with the buttons. It is her turn to laugh as he lets out a grunt of displeasure at the zipper becoming stuck. 

 

“Here let me-.” She leans up to unzip it herself, but instead slams her forehead into his own. 

 

Mumbling he rubs it lightly before looking down at her again. 

“It’s a little small in here.”

 

The pain fades quickly and instead of answering she begins working on his black leather belt. 

At the sight of her small fingers working his eyes narrow and his hands begin wandering in earnest. 

 

She didn’t care how small it was, and deep down she knew he didn’t either. It was the perfect place for them, they only had to figure out a way to maneuver it all. 

 

When the fabric of her dress finally pulls free from her zipper he is finally able to trail his fingers down each individual vertebrae of her back. The smooth knuckles skim the soft skin and send chills over her body. 

 

Finishing with his belt she reaches up and forces his arms out of the white shirt sleeves as he pulls down the sleeveless dress, revealing a white lace set that Veronica had helped her pick out. 

 

She can hear the heavy exhale of his breath as his eyes scan her up and down. To think she used to despise that heated stare. 

Now she wished it could be burned into her skin forever. 

 

Crawling over her he rests his elbows on the cool leather next to her head. Warm fingers trace her lower belly and tease the seam of the lace panties she is now very thankful she purchased. 

 

She couldn’t resist letting her hands wander over his lower back and down to the curve of his ass. Pulling up he gives her a devilish look. 

 

Rolling her eyes she nods.

 

_ Yes I am an ass girl, sue me. _

 

Grinning he rolls his hips into her just as she lowers her hands further and feels a small stiff object in his back pocket. 

Yanking it out she turns it in her hands. 

 

“Juggie, where you planning this?” She asks tilting her head innocently.

 

It is his turn to blush, from his cheeks to ears. 

“I just wanted to be prepared, and Archie gave it to me-.”

 

She silences him with a kiss, teasing the seam of his lips with her tongue lightly.

Pecking his cheek she makes her way to his earlobe and whispers. 

“It's a nice thought, but i've been on birth control since we got back together.”

 

His head smacks the ceiling in utter bewilderment. 

 

She only smiles and beckons him to flip under her.

 

He is clad only in his boxers while she sits only in a lace bra and panty set. Yet she doesn't feel nervous. Only anticipation, excitement, and well….love. 

 

She  _ loves _ this boy. 

This man. 

 

Reaching back she unclasps the bra and tosses it to the floorboard. 

Searing hands roam around her lace clad bottom and up her sides. They hit their destination and her world begins to shift. He pulls her down gently so that he can use his tongue to trace the soft curve of her breast. Flicking his tongue he bares his teeth and lets them skim the soft skin before moving inward toward her left nipple.

The warmth of his tongue swirls around the stiffened peak as his teeth pluck at it lightly, drawing out her very first low moan. 

 

The sound is stark against the quiet of the night and the heat of the car. It surprises her but makes her arch her back even more towards his mouth. Looking down she sees a cocky grin as his eyes flick up to meet her. His breath is hot on her chest as he switches to the other side, and traces the skin just around the pink of her nipple. 

 

“Stop teasing.” She gasps before locking her fingers in his thick hair in an attempt to force him where she wished. 

 

He only smiles against her skin and begins to kiss down the center of her chest. As he reaches the center of her stomach he yanks her forward so she is sat with her knees nearly on each side of his head. His long legs are bent so that his feet are flat on the leather behind her. 

 

In the past he hadn’t exactly been hesitant, but she had known he’d been holding back. It wasn’t until now that she knew exactly how much. 

 

Holding her eyes he grips the sides of the lace at her hips and gives it a light tug. Not really attempting to remove them but intending it as a question.

 

_ Is this ok? _

 

She only smiles and shimmies out of them as gracefully as she can in the cramped space. 

 

The soft cloth of his boxers rub the skin of her inner thighs as she lowers herself down to meet the hardened member underneath. At the contact she feels his body tighten. The vein in his neck protrudes as he hastily grips her hips to still her. Her eyes snap to his as she lets a small smirk crawl onto her face before grinding her hips against him with more enthusiasm.

 

He swears and throws his back against the seat, baring his neck to her. 

 

Powerful. 

 

That was how he made her feel. They are equal in their effect on each other, none having too much sway to each side. He pushed she pulled. 

 

Before she could bear down again his arms tensed and she nearly squealed as she was pulled up to his sternum. Feeling bare and exposed she leaned backward with the intention of scooting her body back to its original resting place of his hips. But he held her fast, not letting her move an inch. 

 

His voice was gravelly and low when he spoke. 

 

“I’m going to try something, just let me know if you want to stop.” 

 

Nodding silently she relaxes as he draws a finger over her core, barely touching the outside. Her body keens as he moves the lace of her panties aside and slips a single long digit in.

 

She had watched those hands diligently for many days. The fantasies she had attempted to conjure up didn’t do them justice.

 

They lay there for a moment, his fingers gently dipping into the warmth between her legs. Exploring, prodding, and she soon realized...  _ teasing _ .

 

She gasped “ _ Jug” _ but he made no change of pace and kept simply enjoying the feel of her soft warmth on his digits. Bucking her hips she urged him onwards sliding from his chest nearly to his shoulders.

 

He looked up  holding  her heavy lidded gaze before firmly gripping her rear and pulling her further over his mouth.

 

The stars outside the glass window shone but could not compare to the ones bursting behind her eyelids.

 

His clever mouth, the one she admired so often played her like the most devilish song.

 

He did not miss a note, swirling his tongue around her most sensitive part, lapping like he hadn’t ever tasted anything so good in his life.

 

Sounds escaped her that she hadn’t thought possible while the only thing keeping her in that moment were his hands firmly holding her in place.

 

His teeth nibbling gently around her sent her palms flying harshly onto the window in front of her.

 

Panting she looked down and allowed one of her hands to tangle into his hair while the other held her balance.

 

The sight of his sly mouth working on her made it difficult not to buck her hips and grind closer. His eyes were closed in much the same way as she’d seen them while he at an ice cream cone. Savoring it, enjoying all of the flavors as they crossed his tongue.

 

Her body tightened at the sight of it. A familiar yet more intense sensation ran through her body and she saw his eyes snap open at the feeling of it on his mouth.

 

She barely had time to see the corner of his eyes crinkle before he wrapped his lips around her bundle of nerves and gave a gentle suck.

 

Her hands scrambled for any thing to hold onto, the seat, the headrest, before settling on his hair and shoulders. 

 

She pulsed and he gave.

 

His mouth never ceasing  until he was sure she had finished completely. She stayed there for a moment, unmoving over his mouth. He earned a smack on his shoulder as he gave her a playful swipe of his tongue over the sensitive flesh. 

 

Perhaps she should have been spent, in need of a nap after that sort of exertion. But she felt very much on the contrary. He was still in his boxers and she felt the need to remedy that as soon as humanly possible.

 

Sliding back she nudged his legs to straighten out as much as they can before his feet his the door. Moving so that she can sit on his thighs she lets her fingers track the skin just above the line of the cloth. There is a trail of dark hair on the soft skin, and she knows that if she follows she will be at her desires destination. 

 

The soft ridges of his stomach tense as she fingers the band and she can see his hands clawing at the soft leather of the seat.

 

Her voice is slick and seductive, “ Now now Jug don’t scratch my new leather seats.” 

 

He glares in response but she sees some blood flow return to his knuckles.

 

Her fingers only trace that band a moment longer before lightly tugging on it, forcing him to lift his hips and allow her to slide them off of his legs and onto the floorboard with her own clothes.

 

Silence shrouded them then, in their own perfect bubble. Untouchable by anything in this moment. Perfectly preserved and untainted by past fears or rejection.

 

Her small hand reached down and held him firm. Hardness wrapped in soft silky skin. The choked gasp that escapes him makes her confidence blossom. Moving up and down she watches him, as he had watched her only moments ago. His lips moving, whispering silent words of love, hands clenching once more on the seat.. 

 

Her mouth seemed to find its way to him without her knowing. She places a soft on the length of him, and allows her hand to caress the tender sack of skin underneath it sending him arching up to her lips.

 

“Holy fucking shit Betts don’t-“ a twirl of her tongue, “- stop.” Smiling around him she worked him in deeper allowing the very tip to reach her throat, not enough to gag. There was only enough left exposed for her to just barely wrap three fingers around.

 

Suddenly she was pulled away and her mouth was consumed by his own swollen lips.

 

Kissing down the side of his cheek to his neck she couldn’t stop the strings of nonsensical words from tumbling out. He only nodded and returned them to her just as sweetly all while running his hands anywhere he could possible touch. 

Her thighs, her waist, a caress to her face.

His trickster hands tweaking a nipple, running along the seam of her heat. Burning a path but still not consuming her the way she knew they could.

 

She lifts herself up on top of him giving him one more light kiss before lining her body up with his and placing the tip of his length at her entrance. 

 

So many moments had led to this one, some horrific, some beautiful. But each one had played its own part in this story and in this snippet of time she couldn’t think of any single one that she would rather not have.

 

He gave her that rebellious smirk of his, taunting her once more.

 

And she lowered onto him. 

Gasping, she feels a stretch and she looks down just in time to see his eyes roll up into his head. .

 

Sitting all the way down she remains still for a short moment, enjoying the sensation of being connected with him. He was warm within her and slick from herself, and she honestly couldn’t imagine being here with anybody else.

 

Her hated enemy. It made her want to laugh.

 

She couldn’t hate him, and despite their quarreling she couldn’t convince herself that she ever really did.

 

Not even close.

 

Not even a little bit.

 

Not even at all.

 

Pushing herself up she rocked down on him once more, balancing herself by laying her palms flat in his wide chest.

 

He let her take, she let him give. Moving his hips in sync with hers. Closing his eyes, opening them again as if to convince himself it was not all a dream. 

 

She had managed to only hit her head once against the ceiling after a particularly enthusiastic thrust on his part. Sending the two of them into a fit of giggles before returning to the task at hand.

 

Just when her body started to tightened as it had only moments before she knew he had felt it to. His core clenched and he reached a hand up to tease her chest once more while the other maneuvered her hips, keeping pace.

 

Her body wound up clenching harder and harder, but it isn’t until his hand slipped between their two pelvises that she was finally able to unwind once more. Clenching, pulsing, pulling him in. 

Her head fell back just as as a flood of heat emerged from him. 

 

His eyes were stars, even as they fluttered shut while his body twitched underneath her. The sounds he made echoed her own escaping under his breath as they both came down from their high.

 

They lay there a moment, her straddling him their slick chests pulled together, allowing him to wrap his arms around her as they let their breathing even out once more.

 

She could say the words to him once more and if he had been anyone else she would have. But with him she knew she didn’t have to. She only panted and slowly came back to herself.

 

It was only when they had both become uncomfortably sticky that she reluctantly peeled herself away from him.

 

Reaching under her seat she pulled out an old Vixens bag and rummaged around for an old towel.

He only sat wordlessly, hands behind his head admiring her. 

 

At the look of male satisfaction on his face she reached down and smacked his button up shirt into his chest.

 

She found her bra, but the bottoms were nowhere to be found. 

 

“Are you going to steal this pair too Juggie?”

 

He pretended to look affronted before handing them to her.

 

“Darling I️ plan on stealing lots of pairs,  _ especially _ if they look like that.”

 

She only laughed before yanking them out of his hands.

 

“You only wish you would get that lucky, who's to say this is happening again?”

 

She primly placed her hands in the bare skin of her lap before giving him a side along glance.

 

Rubbing her bare arms he rests his chin on the curve of her neck, sending her body into chills once more.

 

“I plan on this happening a lot more, preferably in more spacious places.” She felt the tease of his teeth on her collar bone before he pulls back and shrugs into his shirt.

 

Despite what had just happened she felt a jolt of anticipation so strong she nearly had to pull off the shirt to expose his arms and chest once more. 

 

With his help she put herself back together into some semblance of what she had looked like before. His hands smoothed her hair once more as he leaned in placing a sweet kiss on her lips.

 

The engine roared to life once more

 

The couple drove slowly, lazily through the back roads of their small town, stopping as often as they could manage and enjoying the endless sky of starlight that stared back at them.

 

——————

 

The girls did not rise until long after noon. Although they each had a story from the night previous they were each withheld behind shining eyes and coy smiles.

 

The fact that none of them even had the energy to gossip before falling into bed said enough of their previous night's activities.

 

Betty felt a little sore, but mostly boneless like each joint and tendon in her body had been thoroughly stretched and worked. 

 

It was not unpleasant. 

 

When her mother turned up to collect the girls the car was in comfortable silence. Despite her prying they only gave her the details she wanted to hear. The music was loud, the drinks delicious, and all hands had stayed on waists and shoulders.

 

It was only then that the interrogation had ceased.

Overall it had turned into a lazy Sunday. 

 

Betty relived the previous night over and over again, unable to stifle her blush even though she was alone.

 

She caught up on homework, not expecting anything from Jughead until at least dark. 

 

But as she began to set out plate for dinner a low rumble echoed down her quiet street. It sent her heart fluttering and her feet flying to the front window.

 

She called out to her mom in the kitchen,

 

“Don’t wait for me, I’m going out!”

 

Her parka had barely covered her arms before she bolted out the door and into the leather clad arms of a raven haired boy.

 

Betty could barely make out her mom’s voice from the open front door.

 

“Where’s your sister going?” She was suspicious “We always have family dinner on Sunday.”

 

Polly only answered with an exaggerated sigh.

 

“She’s meeting some bikers. Big ones. Full of sperm.”

 

Betty didn’t have to see her mother’s face to know that her lips were flattened into a thin line and her eyes were narrowed into slits.

 

“Funny.”

 

Crawling into the back of the rumbling machine she felt Jughead shoulders shake and his chest rumble with laughter.

 

She smiled into his back breathing him in and curling into his warmth. 

 

Handing her the helmet he waited patiently for her to clip it on before giving her mother, who had pulled open the blinds, a small sarcastic wave. 

 

She couldn’t hold back a small cackle as he peeled out of the driveway, leaving behind thick black marks on the otherwise immaculate concrete. 

 

They were free, driving down the streets of Riverdale, untethered by their family, their past, and even their own demons. 

 

And as he let out a low whoop she couldn’t help but splay her arms out to her sides and yell with him. 

 

The man she had once hated had become an all consuming love. 

 

Her world had been twisted, stomped on, and but back together again.

And she knew she was better for it. 

 

As they pulled into Pop’s she couldn't help but think that this would be the start of many perfect nights. 

 

She was not wrong. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------

_ The End. _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that is it...for now ;)   
> I cannot express how much I loved writing this version of Betty and Jughead. It is something I definitely plan on revisiting very soon!  
> Hopefully I did ok with the M rated scenes. This was honestly the first time I have every written anything like that and I am so anxious to hear what you all have to say!  
> Please let me know what you thought about the fic as a whole and if there is anything you are really hoping to see in the future.   
> I am all ears. 
> 
> Once again thank you all so much for sticking with me and reading and commenting on the chapters it truly means the world. I am trying to get better at writing and you guy are truly invaluable in the entire process.   
> Lots of love, 
> 
> TAWOTWS


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